RobotRisk Autonomous Systems Incident & Risk Register
RobotRisk / Tesla / 2016-05-07
av trucking · fatality

First US Autopilot fatality: Joshua Brown, Williston, Florida

S5 · 05/07
2016 · Tesla · Williston, FL, USA

Record

CompanyTesla
Categoryav trucking
Typefatality
Date05/07
2016
Time of daynot documented
LocationWilliston, FL, USA
SeverityS5 (fatality or catastrophic loss)
Scale1 fatality
Confidencehigh
VerificationYes - adversarially checked against the cited source
SourceNTSB

What happened

A Tesla Model S operating with Autopilot engaged failed to recognize a white tractor-trailer crossing the highway against a bright sky and underrode the trailer at highway speed, killing the driver. NTSB investigated and issued a formal report (HAR-17/02).

Tesla record context

Entries by year and severity

10212016 S5: 11162018 S5: 11182019 S5: 11192022 S3: 12022 S5: 12222023 S3: 12023 S4: 12023 S5: 24232024 S2: 22024 S3: 22024 S4: 12024 S5: 49242025 S1: 12025 S2: 152025 S3: 22025 S4: 22025 S5: 121252026 S2: 162026 S3: 42026 S5: 12126
S1S2S3S4S5

By incident type

By severity

Tesla vs av trucking alternatives

av trucking context

av trucking: entries by year

3496982016 S5: 11162018 S5: 11182019 S5: 11192021 S1: 11212022 S2: 12022 S3: 32022 S5: 15222023 S1: 12023 S2: 12023 S3: 32023 S4: 42023 S5: 211232024 S1: 42024 S2: 92024 S3: 72024 S4: 22024 S5: 426242025 S1: 62025 S2: 5362025 S3: 132025 S4: 42025 S5: 4563252026 S1: 22026 S2: 6582026 S3: 312026 S4: 42026 S5: 369826
S1S2S3S4S5

av trucking: failure modes

av trucking: most entries

fatality context

fatality: by category

fatality: by year

fatality: severity profile

Comparable fatality events in av trucking

SevDateCompanyEvent
S52026-08WaymoPedestrian killed after being thrown into path of Waymo vehicle in Dallas
S32026-08WaymoPedestrian killed by SUV thrown into stationary Waymo in Dallas
S52026-06-20TeslaTesla crashes into Texas home, killing woman inside; Autopilot engagement disputed
S52025-10-06TeslaTesla driver killed after Autopilot/FSD stopped car in live highway lane, rear-ended by semi
S52025-09-14WaymoWaymo robotaxi involved in motorcyclist fatality, reportedly not at fault
S52024-10-18TeslaUS probes Tesla Full Self-Driving system after pedestrian killed
S52024-04-19TeslaTesla in Full Self-Driving mode killed Seattle-area motorcyclist
S52024-04-19TeslaFatal FSD crash kills motorcyclist, Snohomish County WA

Other Tesla entries

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