Tesla disputes driver-assist role in Texas crash that killed homeowner
Tesla says the driver manually accelerated to full throttle during a fatal crash in Katy, Texas, while federal investigators open a special probe into the incident.
A Tesla Model 3 driven by Michael Butler left a road in Katy, Texas, and struck a residential home on Friday night, killing 76-year-old Martha Avila. Butler told Harris County deputies the vehicle was on Autopilot at the time, a claim that quickly became central to the debate over Tesla’s driver-assistance features.
Tesla broke its usual silence on Monday. Ashok Elluswamy, vice president of AI software and the first engineer hired for the Autopilot team, posted on X that data showed the driver “manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100 % … they reached a speed of 73 mph during the crash, and had the accelerator pressed even after the crash.”
Elon Musk echoed the statement, noting that “FSD drives slowly through neighborhood streets and this was a high speed crash.”
The company had discontinued the Autopilot name in January after a California ruling deemed it misleading. Its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system, offered for a $99 monthly fee, still requires active driver supervision.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced a special crash investigation, adding to more than 40 probes it has opened into Tesla incidents involving advanced driver-assistance systems. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office said it will forward its findings to the district attorney for possible criminal review.
Investigators will need to examine the vehicle’s data logs to determine whether Autopilot was active, overridden or malfunctioning at the time of the crash.
