Texas man charged with manslaughter after Tesla crash kills woman, 76, amid ongoing Autopilot scrutiny
A Texas man has been charged with manslaughter after his Tesla crashed into a suburban Houston home last month while the vehicle was reportedly operating in self-driving mode, killing a 76-year-old woman inside, authorities said.
Michael Butler, 44, was arrested on July 1 and booked into the Harris County Jail on charges connected to the death of Martha Avila, according to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez. A judge set bond at $150,000, and Butler remained in custody as of July 2, jail records show.
According to the sheriff’s office, Butler was driving a Tesla Model 3 around 8 p.m. on June 19 when he failed to maintain his lane, left the roadway and crashed through the front of a two-story brick residence in Katy, a fast-growing suburb west of Houston. Butler told investigators the vehicle had an automated driving assistance system engaged at the time of the crash.
The car entered the home “at a high rate of speed,” striking Avila, who was inside. She was airlifted to a local hospital and later died from her injuries. The sheriff’s office said Butler showed no signs of intoxication and cooperated with authorities.
Surveillance footage captured by a home security camera—shared by Avila’s daughter Jennifer Barbour on Facebook—shows the Tesla launching off the road before slamming into the residence. “She was the best grandma anyone could’ve asked for. A second mother for my kids and a blessing,” Barbour told USA TODAY. “We are heartbroken.”
The crash is under investigation by local law enforcement, the National Transportation Safety Board and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The charge comes as Avila’s family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against both Butler and Tesla, alleging negligence and a “design defect” in the vehicle.
The lawsuit, filed June 23 in Harris County District Court by Barbour and her husband Justin, claims that defects in the Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems included a “failure to adequately monitor and determine driver engagement, the failure to adequately detect stationary objects and roadway terminations, and Sudden Unintended Acceleration.” The suit cites a 2023 analysis by The Washington Post of NHTSA data that identified at least 17 fatal incidents linked to Tesla’s Autopilot and at least 736 crashes involving the system since 2019. The Barbours seek more than $1 million in damages.
Tesla has disputed the claim that its self-driving system caused the collision. CEO Elon Musk wrote on social media that Butler’s description “makes no sense,” noting that Full Self-Driving mode “drives slowly through neighborhood streets” while this was a high-speed crash. Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s head of AI software, alleged that the driver manually overrode the self-driving feature by pressing the accelerator fully, reaching 73 mph even after impact.
The case adds to a growing list of legal and regulatory headwinds for Tesla’s driver-assistance technologies. In 2023, NHTSA announced a recall of more than 2 million Tesla vehicles over Autopilot concerns. The following year, federal investigators opened a probe into whether that recall was adequate after 20 crashes involving updated software. Consumer advocates and safety experts argue that the term “self-driving” misleads drivers into over-reliance, and that such systems are not yet capable of operating without constant human supervision.
This incident, occurring in a residential area and involving a fatality inside a home, could deepen public and regulatory skepticism. The outcome of the criminal case and the civil lawsuit may influence how automakers market advanced driver-assistance systems and how courts assign liability when automation fails.
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Contributing: Greta Cross and Mike Snider, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tesla driver charged with manslaughter after crash into Texas home