Who's At Fault When Software Glitches Cause A Car Accident?

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We're increasingly living in an era when flawed code is causing cars to break. That's according to an analysis by the group Recall Masters' May, 2026 report. Last year the National Highway Transportation Association (NHTSA) issued a stunning 8 million recalls involving faulty electronics. Many were related to buggy back-up cameras, misfiring driver assistance systems and blipping instrument clusters. We don't know exactly how many fewer bricked cars this would amount to if it weren't for Ford's many recalls delaying dealer fixes, but that's a different headache.

Actually, maybe it's related. Because if any not-yet-repaired software-blipping car harmed the driver, passenger, a pedestrian or anyone else outside the vehicle, we wanted to know who'd be responsible. Is it the driver? What about the shop that made the last software patch? And, naturally, how about the car's manufacturer?

Since we're not lawyers, and are explicitly not issuing legal advice with this column, we instead asked Charles Gilman, founding attorney of the practice, Gilman of Gilman & Bedigian, LLC, with offices in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Texas. His firm has a focus on medical malpractice, but also intellectual property and automotive claims. His first answer will annoy you — but don't worry, because we didn't let him off that easily.

"This is going to depend on the glitch," he said when asked who would be at fault, "what caused the glitch, and several other factors. For example, if it's a brand new car... the issue may be a software defect, which will point to the manufacturer for liability. If it was a faulty repair or incomplete update, failure to update a known defect of the software liability will rest with the dealership or repair shop that could have [or] should have fixed it."

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One question we have has to do with recalls and the responsibility of the car's driver when a recall is issued. Pity the poor Ford owner here, but not solely them. Last year Carfax said there were 54.6 million vehicles with unrepaired recalls nationwide, and this past spring they made that number a bit starker, noting that one in five vehicles on American roads has an unfixed recall. FYI, here's how you can check if your car is subject to a recall.

Now, let's say you never click on that link. Let's say you moved and never got that recall in the mail. Or, for instance, you bought a used car and don't service it at the dealer. Maybe you even do a bunch of repairs yourself, so unlike a decent independent mechanic, you're not actively searching for recalls that they would see when they rotate your tires. Really, should it be on you, the car's owner, to know if your car was designed properly? And what about the upsides and downsides of over-the-air updates? Should you be on the hook for knowing if your slick ride is even getting those, which, theoretically, should mean fewer software glitches?

Gliman says the manufacturer probably still has more liability than you do when it comes to recalls. Put simply, just issuing a recall wouldn't by default protect the carmaker from liability in the event of an accident. "Recall notices will not necessarily release the manufacturer from claims," he says. "They may have to issue orders to stop using the vehicle depending on the defect."

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Gilman can't see a scenario where a car buyer would be held at fault for purchasing the wrong car, such as one with open recalls or stop-drive orders from the manufacturer. "It would be the seller of the vehicle that should know and has the best ability to know that the vehicle should not have been sold," Gillman explains. "If the vehicle has known defects, the manufacturer and the dealership are in the best position to prevent the sale of the vehicle, so the liability should rest with them."

But Gilman says the software side of automakers' legal obligations, "is a developing area... and the law will have to develop along with the technology." He notes that "manufacturers are governed by current state and federal laws," and believes carmakers will argue they're relieved of liability just by following those statutes. But he doubts that would be enough.

Which naturally comes around to needing a lawyer if there's a suspicion that buggy software was at fault for an accident. And that may just entail a bit of bolstering of an insurance claim, possibly involving your car insurance provider and maybe your health insurance provider, too. Or, it may go further, and you might wind up in court, he says. "A lawsuit may be required so the consumer can be made whole." Like it or not, that's why we have lawyers.