A Tesla employee was killed after his Model 3 veered off the road and crashed, prompting his wife to sue the brand for a defective Autopilot system. However, the investigation reveals a different picture altogether.
A lawsuit was filed against Tesla in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado after Hans von Ohain crashed his 2021 Tesla Model 3 into a tree on May 16, 2022.
The impact led to a fire, which killed Von Ohain. His lucky neighbor, Erik Rossiter, who was in the passenger seat, managed to escape in time.
Plaintiff Nora Bass, the wife of Von Ohain, claimed in the lawsuit that her husband had activated the Autopilot feature in his 2021 Tesla Model 3, which caused the vehicle to go off the road and crash into a tree.
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She contends that her husband’s “gruesome and painful death would have been avoided” if the autopilot hadn’t steered the vehicle off the road. Carcomplaints.com quoted a statement from the Tesla crash lawsuit. It reads:
“Decedent Hans Von Ohain fought to regain control of the vehicle, but, to his surprise and horror, his efforts were prevented by the vehicle’s Autopilot features, leaving him helpless and unable to steer back on course.”
The lawsuit blames Tesla for the crash and claims that it was aware of a defect in the Autopilot system, but continued selling the Model 3.
However, the detailed 400-page report released by the Colorado State Patrol reveals details that go against the plaintiff’s claims.
The police report confirms that Von Ohain was driving under the influence of alcohol. Blood alcohol levels recorded later were found to be three times higher than the permissible legal limit.
In addition, the Tesla employee was driving his Model 3 at 88 mph, which is nearly 40 mph over the speed limit.
Tesla argues that the lawsuit holds no relevance since the Autopilot feature was not activated on Von Ohain’s Model 3 at the time of the incident.
Colorado State Patrol confirmed that the vehicle was traveling at 88 mph within the five seconds of crashing into a tree and catching fire, based on the data obtained from the Model 3’s event data recorder.
In September 2025, Tesla was allowed access to the computer chip from the Model 3’s damaged event data recorder.
The obtained data confirmed that the Autopilot feature was turned off when the Model 3 was being driven at 35 mph, ten minutes before the fatal crash.
Tesla’s motion to dismiss the case read:
“Tesla was unable to inspect the EDR [event data recorder] for the vehicle until September 3, 2025 and the data definitively proved that Autopilot was not engaged at the time of the accident. The EDR was turned over to Plaintiffs’ counsel’s firm and retained expert by Colorado State Patrol in July 2022. Although this critical evidence was at Plaintiffs’ fingertips for well over one year before this lawsuit was filed, Plaintiffs chose to ignore (or perhaps conceal) this evidence, while continuing to represent to this Court that a defect in the vehicle’s Autopilot system caused the crash and the death of Mr. Von Ohain.”
Lawyers for the plaintiff were no longer “pursuing an Autopilot defect claim,” Tesla’s lawyers told the judge.
