Overview
- A Tesla Model 3 sped off a residential street and tore through the brick front of a Katy, Texas, home on Friday, striking 76-year-old Martha Avila who later died at a hospital.
- The driver, Michael Butler, told deputies an automated driving-assistance system was engaged at the time of the crash, while Tesla engineers publicly said vehicle data showed the accelerator was pressed to 100 percent.
- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a special crash investigation and Harris County investigators plan to extract the car’s event data recorder and onboard logs to verify system status, speed and driver inputs.
- Avila’s family has hired Zehl & Associates and set up a GoFundMe after the home was declared uninhabitable; no criminal charges have been filed as investigators gather evidence for the district attorney.
- The case adds to existing federal probes into Tesla’s Level 2 Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features and could prompt regulatory enforcement or a recall if engineers find a safety defect.