U.S. safety regulators have opened a new federal investigation into Tesla’s driver assistance systems following a fatal crash in Texas in which a Model 3 vehicle left the roadway and slammed into a home in a Houston suburb, killing a 76-year-old woman and adding fresh scrutiny to the company’s widely deployed partially automated driving technology, according to authorities.
The probe by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) adds to a growing list of federal inquiries into Tesla’s partially automated driving technology, which the company markets under names including Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (Supervised). Regulators have for years been examining how such systems perform in real-world conditions amid concerns that branding and capabilities may not be clearly understood by drivers.
The latest investigation centres on a crash in Katy, a suburb of Houston, where the vehicle left its lane and struck a residence, killing Martha Avila, Harris County authorities said.
The driver, Michael Butler, was cooperating with investigators at the scene and told local authorities he had been using Tesla’s partially automated driving systems at the time of the crash, officials said.
The NHTSA says it has opened a “special crash investigation” into the incident, adding to a growing number of probes into Tesla’s driver assistance technology.
Tesla chief executive Elon Musk defended the system on his social media platform X, saying the incident “makes no sense.”
“FSD drives slowly through neighborhood streets and this was a high speed crash!” Musk wrote, referring to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system.
Despite its branding, Tesla’s owners’ manual states that “Full Self-Driving (Supervised) requires you to pay attention to the road and be ready to take over at all times.”
Tesla vice president of Autopilot engineering Ashok Elluswamy said in a post responding to Musk that the driver appeared to have overridden the system.
“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 wrote. “They reached a speed of 73 mph during the crash, and had the accelerator pressed even after the crash.”
The driver’s account and Tesla executives’ statements have not been independently verified and remain under investigation.
The NHTSA has opened more than three dozen special crash investigations into Tesla vehicles involving “advanced driver assistance systems” since 2016, the agency said.
The regulator has been scrutinising such systems as automakers push ahead with partially automated driving features marketed under names including Autopilot and Full Self-Driving.
Tesla previously marketed its system under the name Autopilot in the U.S. before changing branding following regulatory pressure. A California court and the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles found Tesla had engaged in false advertising related to the system, potentially misleading consumers about its capabilities.
The case adds to a broader record of incidents involving Tesla’s driver assistance technology. A May crash in California saw a Tesla strike a house, injuring six people, according to local media reports.
Separately, TeslaDeaths.com, an independent tracker compiling reports from news and official records, has identified dozens of fatalities in crashes where Tesla’s driver assistance systems were cited as a factor over the past decade.
The latest probe comes as Tesla chief executive Elon Musk continues to promote the company’s push toward autonomous driving and robotaxi deployment, a cornerstone of its long-term valuation story for investors.
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Faustine Ngila is the AI Editor at Impact Newswire, based in Nairobi, Kenya. He is an award-winning journalist specializing in artificial intelligence, blockchain, and emerging technologies.
He previously worked as a global technology reporter at Quartz in New York and Digital Frontier in London, where he covered innovation, startups, and the global digital economy.
With years of experience reporting on cutting-edge technologies, Faustine focuses on AI developments, industry trends, and the impact of technology on society.
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