Tesla Driver Faces Manslaughter Charge After Fatal Crash That Killed Texas Grandmother

Tesla Driver Using Autopilot in Texas Crash Is Charged With Manslaughter

A front-door video camera of the crash, which killed a woman inside her home, showed the Tesla plowing into a house through its driveway. A Texas man whose Tesla sedan was in an automated driver-assistance system mode when it crashed into a house last month in Katy, Texas, and killed a woman inside has been charged with manslaughter, court records show. Michael Butler, 44, was operating his Tesla Model 3 using the autopilot function on June 19 when the vehicle left the road traveling at a "high rate of speed," striking and entering the home of Martha Avila, 76, who was inside, the Harris County Sheriff's Office said. Ms. Avila was taken by a medical helicopter to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead, the sheriff's office said. Mr. Butler was charged on Wednesday with one count of manslaughter and is being held in the Harris County jail on $150,000.00 bond, court records show. It was not clear if Mr. Butler has a lawyer. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the main federal auto safety agency, opened an investigation into the crash last month. A front-door video camera that captured the crash showed the Tesla plowing into the house through its driveway. Ms. Avila was standing in the front room of her house at the time of the crash, officials said. Mr. Butler showed no signs of intoxication and was cooperative during the investigation, officials said. A Tesla executive, Ashok Elluswamy, who is in charge of the company's artificial intelligence software, said on X late last month that the driver "manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator." He added that the car had accelerated to 73 miles an hour. The autopilot function, Tesla's driver-assistance technology, is a popular feature among drivers, but over the years it has raised concerns and been connected to various accidents. Tesla's owners' manuals tell drivers that they should keep their hands on the wheel and take over if anything goes wrong. In 2023, Tesla recalled more than two million vehicles after federal regulators said the automaker had not done enough to ensure that drivers remained attentive when using the software that can steer, accelerate and brake cars automatically. In 2024, Tesla settled a lawsuit that blamed the automaker's driver-assistance software for the death of a California man in 2018.

Man charged with manslaughter over Tesla crash originally blamed on car's self-driving mode

Tesla said Michael Butler disabled his car's self-driving mode before it plowed into Martha Avila's home in June A man whose Tesla Model 3 was allegedly in self-driving mode when it crashed into a home near Houston and killed a 76-year-old woman inside recently has been jailed on a count of manslaughter. Michael Butler's arrest in the 19 June death of Martha Avila was announced late on Wednesday in a Facebook post by the sheriff of Harris county, Texas, Ed Gonzalez. Butler, 44, remained in the custody of Gonzalez's office as of Friday morning in lieu of $150,000 bail, jail records showed. He had a court hearing tentatively scheduled for 6 July. His arrest came amid a case that has drawn federal investigators' scrutiny as well as a wrongful death lawsuit from Avila's family. Butler was traveling in his Tesla at about 8pm local time in the Houston suburb of Katy when the car allegedly plowed through the front wall of Avila's home, fatally pinning her. Investigators said Butler, who was injured in the wreck, showed no signs of intoxication and was cooperating with investigators. He allegedly told sheriff's deputies that he was using self-driving technology with which the car was equipped, but it has not been clear what - if any - role it played in the deadly crash. Prior to Butler's arrest on suspicion of manslaughter, Tesla's vice-president of artificial intelligence software, Ashok Elluswamy, posted on X that the driver involved in Avila's death "manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100% of the accel pedal in [the] residential area". Tesla's CEO, trillionaire Elon Musk, similarly had posted on X - which he also owns - that "this was a high speed crash!" Texas law defines manslaughter as recklessly causing the death of an individual. It is treated as a second-degree felony in many cases and can carry a penalty of between two and 10 years in prison. Lawyers for Avila's family have previously said they filed a civil complaint on 23 June contending that Tesla - Musk's electric vehicle manufacturer - should be held liable for her death. They also named Butler as a defendant. The lawsuit alleged gross negligence in Avila's death, along with a failure to warn that the Tesla Model 3's "autopilot" and "full self-driving systems" were defective. One day after the filing of the wrongful death lawsuit by Avila's family, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it was launching an investigation into the crash. That was two days after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it was investigating the crash too. Those inquiries joined a steadily growing number of investigations aimed at Tesla. Since 2016, as Reuters has reported, the NHTSA has opened nearly 50 special investigations into Tesla crashes believed to involve advanced driver-assistance systems. About two dozen deaths from those crashes were reported. And the NHTSA in March escalated its investigation into 3.2m Teslas equipped with full ⁠self-driving technology over concerns that the system may fail to detect or warn drivers in poor visibility. Tesla in 2023 recalled about 2m cars, nearly all of its electric vehicles on US roads, to better ensure that drivers pay attention when using the autopilot feature. Tesla has said the technology enables vehicles to steer, accelerate and brake within the lanes they are traveling. And full self-driving lets vehicles obey traffic signals as well as change lanes, the manufacturer has said. Both technologies still require "fully attentive" drivers whose hands are on the cars' steering wheels, Tesla has added. In early 2025, Tesla car sales plunged and its stock fell as a result of a boycott against Musk in the wake of his wading into US federal politics. He temporarily led the Trump administration's budget-cutting "department of government efficiency" (Doge) initiative, and he also embraced extremist political candidates in Europe. But strong figures reported on Thursday suggested Tesla's auto business has been regaining momentum.

Tesla driver charged with manslaughter after crash into Texas home

A Texas man has been charged with manslaughter after his Tesla crashed into a home last month while allegedly in self-driving mode, killing a 76-year-old woman inside the residence, authorities said. Michael Butler, 44, was arrested on July 1 and booked into the Harris County Jail in connection with the death of Martha Avila, according to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez. A magistrate set Butler's bond at $150,000, and he remained in custody on July 2, online jail records show. Butler was driving a Tesla Model 3 at around 8 p.m. local time on June 19 when he failed to stay in a single lane, left the roadway, and crashed through the front of a two-story brick residence in Katy, Texas, a Houston suburb, the sheriff's office said in a news release. Butler told authorities the vehicle was operating with an automated driving assistance system engaged at the time of the crash, according to the sheriff's office. The vehicle had entered the residence "at a high rate of speed" and struck Avila, the sheriff's office said. She was airlifted to a local hospital and later died from her injuries. The sheriff's office added that Butler showed no signs of intoxication during the incident and cooperated with authorities. Surveillance footage captured by a camera on the home, shared by Avila's daughter Jennifer Barbour on Facebook, showed the vehicle flying off the road before striking the residence. "She was the best grandma anyone could've asked for. A second mother for my kids and a blessing," Barbour previously told USA TODAY. "We are heartbroken." The incident is under investigation by local authorities, the National Transportation Safety Board, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Family's lawsuit alleges negligence by driver, Tesla The charge comes after Avila's family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Butler and Tesla, alleging the crash resulted from negligence and a "design defect" of the vehicle. The lawsuit claims that the design defects in Butler's vehicle and in Tesla's Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems included the "failure to adequately monitor and determine driver engagement, the failure to adequately detect stationary objects and roadway terminations in the Vehicle's path, and Sudden Unintended Acceleration." The suit cited a 2023 analysis of NHTSA data from The Washington Post that "identified at least 17 fatal incidents linked to Tesla's Autopilot." The analysis also "found that by mid-2023, Tesla's Autopilot system had been involved in at least 736 crashes since 2019." The complaint, filed by Jennifer Barbour and her husband, Justin Barbour, in Harris County District Court on June 23, seeks more than $1 million in damages. Tesla disputes account that self-driving system caused crash Tesla has disputed claims that the vehicle's self-driving system was responsible for the collision. After the crash, Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of Tesla, wrote on social media that Butler's description of events "makes no sense." "FSD (full self-driving) drives slowly through neighborhood streets and this was a high-speed crash!" Musk said in a post on X. In a separate post on X, Ashok Elluswamy, who leads Tesla's artificial intelligence software, alleged that the vehicle's self-driving feature was manually overridden. "In this case, the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100% of the accel pedal in this residential area," Elluswamy alleged. "They reached a speed of 73 mph during the crash, and had the accelerator pressed even after the crash." Tesla's driver-assistance systems have drawn scrutiny over the years following various incidents, multiple lawsuits, and federal safety investigations. In 2023, the NHTSA announced a recall of more than 2 million Tesla vehicles over concerns with the Autopilot feature. The following year, federal investigators launched a probe into whether the recall had been adequate, citing 20 crashes involving Tesla vehicles with updated software. Contributing: Greta Cross and Mike Snider, USA TODAY

Driver who crashed Tesla into home, killing grandma, charged after EV company says he 'manually overrode' autopilot

A driver who was using Tesla's Autopilot when he crashed through a home and killed a grandmother has been arrested after the electric car maker said their data shows he floored the gas pedal himself and "manually overrode" the self-driving feature. Michael Butler, 44, was charged with manslaughter after he plowed his Tesla into a Katy, Texas, home at more than 70 miles per hour last month, killing Martha Ávila, 76, as she was putting away groceries, the Harris County Sheriff's Office announced Wednesday. Butler, who is also being sued by Ávila's family for the incident, allegedly drove the Tesla Model 3 off the road, over a lawn and through the front of Ávila's brick home on June 19, leaving a gaping hole, dramatic footage shows. Ávila was pinned and suffered severe injuries. She was airlifted to an area hospital, where she was pronounced dead, KHOU reported. Butler, who also suffered serious injuries, told investigators that he had the vehicle's self-driving system engaged when he crashed, investigators said. However, Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla's head of AI, claimed the self-driving mode was manually overridden by pressing the accelerator all the way "even after the crash." "In this case, the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100% of the accel pedal in this residential area," he posted on X. "They reached a speed of 73 mph during the crash, and had the accelerator pressed even after the crash." Ávila's family, who was forced to relocate due to the severe damage to the home, has filed a lawsuit against both Butler and Tesla, claiming that both Butler's actions and Tesla's driver-assistance technology were factors in the deadly crash, KHOU reported. Investigators have said there was no indication Butler was intoxicated. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.