The family of a woman who died after a Tesla, which was operating using an “automated driving assistance system” according to authorities, crashed into her home is suing the company and the driver.
As reported by ElektrekThe lawsuit was filed in Harris County District Court by Jennifer and Justin Barbour, the daughter and son-in-law of the 76-year-old victim, Martha Avila. It accuses Tesla of a design flaw, and the car’s owner, Michael Butler, 44, of negligence.
Butler’s Tesla Model 3 allegedly crashed into Avila’s Katy, Texas, at around 8pm on June 19, when she was standing in her front bedroom. He was later pronounced dead after being airlifted to a nearby hospital. Justin Barbour was also inside and suffered multiple injuries.
The driver was said to be using the Tesla Model 3’s self-driving system at the time of the accident, and the County Sheriff’s Office said he was cooperating with him and did not show signs of intoxication. The family blames both parties for the crash, saying that the Tesla car failed to properly locate the end of the road and the house ahead. They also said the car’s systems failed to warn Butler of the danger and said the technology “has a history of known danger.” Avila’s family is seeking more than $1m in damages.
Tesla appears to have admitted that Butler once used its FSD (Full Self-Driving) system, which despite the name still requires a vigilant person behind the wheel. However, the company claims that the driver ultimately caused the accident after losing control himself.
In response to a post on X, Elon Musk said that the circumstances of the accident meant that the FSD could not be used at the time. “Yes, this is ridiculous. FSD is driving slowly on local roads and this was a high speed crash!” he wrote.
Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s Head of AI, also commented on the post, supporting Musk’s claims that Butler was directly using the car in the events leading up to the fatal crash. “Yes. In this case, the driver drove himself by driving himself by pressing the accelerator up to 100% of the accel pedal in this seat,” he said. “They reached speeds of 73 mph at the time of the crash, and they were depressed by the accelerator even after the crash.”
In accordance with ElektrekButler had told Harris County officials that his car was on Autopilot (Tesla’s standard self-driving system, which is less advanced than FSD) when it crashed into Avila’s two-story home. In accordance with ABCNo charges have been filed and the accident is still under investigation.
It’s not the first time that Tesla’s autonomous driving technology has been the subject of legal action involving the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which launched its own investigation into the recent Texas crash. Last year, a federal agency opened an investigation into how Tesla reports crashes involving its driver assistance systems, and recently, a judge ordered Tesla to pay $243 million for a fatal crash that began in 2019, in which Autopilot was involved.
