The driver who crashed a Tesla into a Texas home at 70 mph had pressed the accelerator to 100 percent, NTSB finds
The driver of a Tesla that crashed into a Texas home and killed a 76-year-old woman had manually overrode Full Self-Driving (FSD) by pressing the accelerator pedal to 100 percent, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
On June 19, the 2025 Model 3 was traveling at more than 70 mph on a residential street with a 30 mph speed limit in Katy, west of Houston, when it jumped the curb and tore through a brick wall. Martha Avila, who was standing in the front room, died from her injuries.
Michael Butler, the driver, told police after the crash that he had passed out while using Tesla’s driver-assistance system. However, investigators found Google searches on his phone including "Tesla FSD not aggressive enough" and "Tesla FSD too timid," raising doubts about his use of the system prior to the collision. Butler has been charged with manslaughter, and Avila’s family has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against both Butler and Tesla.
The NTSB finding clears Tesla’s FSD software in this specific crash but does not address broader scrutiny of the company’s driver-assistance technology. The NHTSA elevated its investigation of FSD to an engineering analysis in March, covering over three million vehicles after documenting crashes where the system failed to detect poor visibility conditions until immediately before impact.
This case highlights a recurring issue with FSD Supervised: while the system allows drivers to override it at any time by pressing the accelerator, Tesla’s marketing has historically blurred the line between driver assistance and full autonomy. The company faced a class-action lawsuit in the US over FSD advertising between October 2016 and August 2024.
The NTSB finding aligns with a statement from Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s head of AI software, who said shortly after the crash that vehicle data showed the driver manually pressed the accelerator to full throttle.
Tesla’s broader FSD safety record remains in question: the company claims one major crash per millions of miles under FSD Supervised, but its Austin robotaxi fleet has reported crashes at roughly four times the human average. The NHTSA opened a separate investigation last year into these crashes.