The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a special crash investigation Monday into a Tesla $TSLA Model 3 that slammed into a home in Katy, Texas on Friday, killing a woman who was inside.
According to a statement from the Harris County Sheriff's Office, Michael Butler had been operating the vehicle with an automated driving assistance system active at the time his car veered from the road and struck the home. Martha Avila, 76, was inside the home when the vehicle broke through the wall. She was transported by air to a hospital, where she died from her injuries. Butler sustained injuries in the crash as well; the sheriff's office noted he tested negative for intoxication and was working with authorities at the scene.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded to the crash in a post on X $TWTR, writing that the scenario "makes no sense." He argued that the Full Self-Driving system operates at low speeds in residential areas and that the crash occurred at high speed. Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla's vice president of AI and software, posted a reply on X claiming the accelerator pedal had been pushed to full capacity, that the car hit 73 mph, and that the pedal remained pressed even once the collision had occurred. Neither the driver's account nor the executives' statements have been confirmed by independent sources.
It was not immediately clear which driver-assistance mode was active at the time of the crash, according to The Wall Street Journal. A spokeswoman for the sheriff's office said the case is still open, and that investigators plan to hand over their findings to the local district attorney once complete so prosecutors can assess whether to pursue charges. Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.
The unit within NHTSA that handles special crash investigations is tasked with reviewing crashes that present unusual engineering questions or outcomes. Agency records show that 46 of those special investigations over the past ten years have involved Teslas operating with self-driving or driver-assistance systems, and fatalities were recorded in more than a dozen of them.
Tesla markets two driver-assistance tiers. Earlier this year, Tesla dropped the Autopilot name for its standard tier following a legal challenge from California authorities, who had determined that the branding misled consumers about what the technology could actually do. Access to the higher-end Full Self-Driving (Supervised) tier costs drivers $99 per month. Tesla's own documentation for the Model 3 states that Full Self-Driving (Supervised) does not eliminate the need for driver attention and that users must remain prepared to assume control of the vehicle.
The family of Martha Avila is set to be represented in litigation by Zehl & Associates, which announced plans to bring a lawsuit on their behalf.