Legal status · Last checked 25 October 2026
Every case on this record, grouped by the company behind the AI system, with the legal position of each one in full. 5 cases have an official finding from a court, coroner, regulator or government investigation. The other 28 cases rest on lawsuits, complaints or open investigations, which are allegations and not proof.
Jury verdict 1 August 2025; post-trial motions denied 20 February 2026; appeal pending in the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (No. 26-10858) as of 11 September 2026.
The Banner estate's lawsuit (Palm Beach County) was curtailed when Florida's 4th District Court of Appeal ruled on 26 February 2025 that the estate could not seek punitive damages; the family settled with Tesla on confidential terms in July 2025, before trial.
NTSB report adopted 25 February 2020. The family's wrongful-death suit against Tesla (Santa Clara County Superior Court) was settled on confidential terms in April 2024 as trial was starting.
NTSB report adopted on 12 September 2017. NHTSA separately closed its defect investigation without ordering a recall. No lawsuit by the family has been reported.
Wrongful-death suit filed on 23 June 2026 by Jennifer and Justin Barbour in Harris County, Texas, state court against Tesla and the driver, Michael Butler, seeking more than $1m in damages plus punitive damages. NTSB investigation HWY26FH014 is ongoing; a preliminary report was released on 15 July 2026 and the Board states that all aspects of the crash remain under investigation while it determines probable cause. NHTSA has opened a special crash investigation. No court, coroner or regulator has made any finding on the role of Tesla's driver-assist software in this death.
Driver arrested on suspicion of vehicular homicide in April 2024; as of January 2026 he had not been charged and prosecutors were still reviewing. Family's wrongful-death suit against Tesla filed 8 January 2026, pending.
Family's lawsuit against Tesla and the driver settled on undisclosed terms (reported 26 June 2026). NHTSA's investigation (PE24031, opened 17 October 2024; upgraded 18 March 2026 to Engineering Analysis EA26002) remains open.
Suit filed in Contra Costa County in October 2024 and removed to federal court (N.D. Cal., Mendoza v. Tesla, No. 24-cv-08738-VC). It settled on confidential terms, reported 2 September 2026, ahead of an October 2026 trial date.
Wrongful-death suit filed in Salt Lake City state court in August 2024 against Tesla and the driver. Pending as of the latest reporting.
The Tesla driver, Kevin George Aziz Riad, pleaded no contest to two counts of vehicular manslaughter and was sentenced to probation (2023), the first US felony prosecution of a driver using a partial-automation system. The families' civil suits against Tesla (Los Angeles County) were settled on confidential terms in 2025.
Wrongful-death suit in Alameda County Superior Court settled on confidential terms in September 2025, about a month before a scheduled jury trial.
Umeda v. Tesla, Inc., No. 5:20-cv-02926-SVK (N.D. Cal.), filed April 2020. The court granted Tesla's motion to dismiss on forum non conveniens grounds on 23 September 2020 on conditions, including that Tesla accept service of process in Japan and that any Japanese judgment be enforceable against it. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed on 3 January 2022 (No. 21-15286, unpublished memorandum). The dismissal was on forum grounds and not on the merits; no decision on Autopilot's role has been reported.
His father sued Tesla's Chinese sales company in Beijing's Chaoyang District People's Court in July 2016; the first hearing was on 20 September 2016. The Paper reported in 2020 that the case was still undecided, and no judgment has been reported. Police found the driver's failure to brake or steer away was the main cause.
Suit by parents of a critically injured student filed in B.C. Supreme Court (reported 10 March 2026). Seven suits by families filed in California in April 2026. 30 more filed in U.S. federal court in California on 2 September 2026, bringing the total to 37. The Province of British Columbia, which announced on 7 July 2026 that it was preparing a claim, filed suit against OpenAI and Sam Altman in federal court in San Francisco on 21 September 2026; according to Al Jazeera the province alleges the company failed to notify law enforcement of threats made on ChatGPT before the attack, and seeks compensation for past and future emergency-response and community-recovery costs and a court order requiring changes to how OpenAI identifies and handles conversations that threaten violence. Sam Altman apologised in April 2026 for the company not having contacted law enforcement. The State of Florida's 1 June 2026 complaint also cites the shooting. All pending; no findings.
Filed 6 November 2025 by Jennifer 'Kate' Fox in Los Angeles Superior Court (25STCV32379), later amended. Included action in JCCP 5431 (3 February 2026). Pending.
Filed 6 November 2025 by Karen Enneking in San Francisco Superior Court (CGC-25-630809), later amended. Included action in JCCP 5431 (3 February 2026). Pending.
Suzanne Adams's estate sued OpenAI, Sam Altman and Microsoft in San Francisco Superior Court on 11 December 2025. A separate federal suit on behalf of Soelberg's estate (N.D. Cal.) survived OpenAI's motion to dismiss or stay on 13 April 2026. Both are pretrial.
Filed 6 November 2025 by Christopher 'Kirk' and Alicia Shamblin in Los Angeles Superior Court (25STCV32382), later amended. Included action in JCCP 5431 (3 February 2026). Pending.
Carrier v. OpenAI was filed in San Francisco Superior Court in June 2026. Pending.
Filed 6 November 2025 by Cedric Lacey in San Francisco Superior Court (CGC-25-630808), later amended. Included action in JCCP 5431 (3 February 2026). Pending.
Turner-Scott v. OpenAI filed in San Francisco County Superior Court in May 2026 (reported 13 May 2026) by parents Leila Turner-Scott and Angus Scott. The State of Florida's 1 June 2026 complaint against OpenAI also cites the case. Pending.
Chabba family federal suit filed 11 May 2026 in Tallahassee, naming the accused gunman and OpenAI. Florida AG criminal investigation of OpenAI announced 21 April 2026 (ongoing; later expanded to the USF case). State of Florida civil suit against OpenAI and Sam Altman filed 1 June 2026 cites the shooting. The accused shooter's criminal case is pending. All pending; no findings.
Filed on 26 August 2025 in San Francisco Superior Court (CGC-25-628528) against OpenAI and Sam Altman. OpenAI denied liability in its November 2025 response. The case is part of the coordinated 'ChatGPT Product Liability Cases' proceeding (JCCP 5431), ordered on 3 February 2026. Pretrial.
No lawsuit has been filed. NPR reported on 18 August 2026 that Laura Reiley and her husband, Jonathan Rottenberg, chose not to pursue a lawsuit after their daughter's death, and that Reiley is instead telling the family's story and advocating for change in the AI industry. No official body has investigated the case and no finding has been made.
Filed January 2026 (complaint dated 12 January 2026) in Los Angeles Superior Court (26STCV00988). Included action in JCCP 5431 (3 February 2026). Pending.
Filed October 2024 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. A federal judge rejected Character.AI's attempt to dismiss the case on First Amendment grounds (May 2025). A court filing on 7 January 2026 disclosed a mediated settlement with Character.AI, its founders Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, and Google. Terms are confidential and the filings contain no admission of liability. WKMG (ClickOrlando) reported on 16 October 2026 that the parties had agreed to settle the wrongful-death lawsuit in January according to court records, and that the settlement was finalised that week with its terms not disclosed. A settlement is not a finding of fault. In a statement issued on Monday 12 October 2026, reported by CBS News the following day, Character.ai said it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, with its chief executive attributing the company's financial problems to 'significant legal, regulatory and operational headwinds'; the company said it will keep operating while it seeks to sell its business, that The Walt Disney Co. has agreed to pay $20 million for a non-exclusive, perpetual licence to its intellectual property, and that it believes it will be sold by late November or early December. A bankruptcy filing is not a finding of fault, and no court has made any finding on the chatbot's role in this death.
Federal wrongful-death suit filed in Colorado in 2025. In January 2026 Character.AI and Google disclosed agreements to settle five family lawsuits in Florida, Colorado, New York and Texas, and K-12 Dive reported this case was among them. Terms are confidential, with no admission of liability.
No lawsuit or official investigation. The account comes from his widow and chat logs reported in March 2023.
NHTSA Preliminary Evaluation PE26007, opened 21 September 2026, covering comma three, comma 3X, comma four and openpilot across an estimated 30,000 devices. The investigation concerns five reported crashes in which vehicles fitted with comma devices struck stopped or slow-moving vehicles in the same lane; two of those crashes were fatal, with three deaths in total. According to Electrek, the only fatal crash identified in NHTSA's released Standing General Order data is the February 2026 Ascension Parish, Louisiana crash recorded here, and one of the five crash reports is not in the public datasets. The investigation is open and has made no finding of defect or of causation. No lawsuit, prosecution or coroner's finding over this crash has been reported in the sources reviewed.
Filed 4 March 2026 by Joel Gavalas in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Google and Alphabet. Reported as the first wrongful-death suit over Gemini. Pending.
No court, tribunal or UN fact-finding body has made a finding on the role of these systems in specific deaths as of 14 September 2026. The UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories (report A/HRC/59/23, 30 June 2025, para. 42) states that the Israeli military has developed AI systems 'such as Lavender, Gospel and Where's Daddy? to process data and generate lists of targets', but does not attribute specific deaths to them. A UN Human Rights Council resolution adopted 5 April 2024 'denounces the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to aid military decision making in conflict that may contribute to international crimes' (per UN News). Israel disputes the reporting's characterisation of these systems: after the documentary 'NAZA', by Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, premiered at the Venice Film Festival on 10 September 2026, with anonymous Israeli military and intelligence whistleblowers describing an AI-powered targeting system known as Lavender, the Israeli military said on 11 September 2026 that it categorically rejects the film's allegations, that the whistleblowers' identities cannot be verified, and that decisions on the selection and approval of strikes were made by human personnel only and not by artificial intelligence.
Estate of Gene B. Lokken et al. v. UnitedHealth Group, Inc. et al., No. 0:23-cv-03514 (D. Minn.). The original complaint was filed 14 November 2023. The Estate of Jackie Martin was added as a plaintiff in the First Amended Complaint on 5 April 2024. On 13 February 2025 Judge John R. Tunheim granted the motion to dismiss in part and denied it in part: most state-law claims were held preempted, but the breach-of-contract and implied-covenant claims proceed. On 9 March 2026 the magistrate judge ruled on plaintiffs' motion to compel discovery. The case was still in discovery as of 11 September 2026 (defendants filed a second amended answer on 4 September 2026). No class has been certified, and no court has made any finding on causation or liability.
NTSB report adopted 19 November 2019. Prosecutors declined to charge Uber as a corporation (2019). The backup operator, Rafaela Vasquez, pleaded guilty to endangerment on 28 July 2023 and was sentenced to three years' supervised probation. No civil verdict against Uber has been reported.