A Tesla Model 3 allegedly operating in driver-assist mode crashed into a house in Katy, Texas, killing a 76-year-old woman who was inside her family's home. The driver, identified as 44-year-old Michael Butler, reportedly told Harris County Sheriff's Office investigators that the vehicle was in an automated driving mode at the time of the crash.
What happened?
According to multiple international media reports, Butler was traveling in his Tesla around 8pm local time when he allegedly failed to stay in a single lane, left the roadway and struck the residence at a high rate of speed. Surveillance footage shared by the victim's daughter, Jennifer Barbour, shows the Model 3 accelerating down Rose Hollow Lane before hitting a curb and tearing through the two-story brick facade of the home on Blooming Park Lane. A witness at a nearby gathering estimated the car was travelling between 60 and 70 mph at the time. Watch the car crash below:
The woman, identified as Martha Avila Mantilla, was standing in the front room of the house when the vehicle came through the wall. She was airlifted to a hospital, where she later died. Butler was also injured and had to be rushed to hospital; dispatch audio indicated he was trapped inside the car following the crash.
Family devastated, home destroyed
Avila Mantilla, remembered by neighbours as a beloved grandmother, was described by a neighbour as being like a second mother to the family living next door. The crash left the house uninhabitable, displacing the family of two parents and three young children, who are now in temporary housing. A GoFundMe has been set up to support them. Sharing the surveillance video online, Barbour wrote that the footage showed 'the car flying into' her mother's home, adding that her mother 'didn't deserve this.'
No charges yet, investigation ongoing
Investigators told news outlets that Butler showed no signs of intoxication and was cooperating with the inquiry. No charges had been filed against him. Authorities said they plan to pull the vehicle's event data recorder and onboard logs to determine whether a driver-assistance system was actually engaged, at what speed, and what driver inputs were made before the crash.
Tesla's AI lead Ashok Elluswamy blamed the entire tragedy on the driver. Via an X post, he explained, "In this case, the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100 percent of the accel pedal in this residential area. They reached a speed of 73 mph during the crash, and had the accelerator pressed even after the crash."
NHTSA opens federal investigation
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has since reportedly opened its own review of the crash, elevating what began as a local probe by the Harris County Sheriff's Office Vehicular Crimes Division.
The development comes against the backdrop of two separate, ongoing federal investigations into Tesla's driver-assistance systems, one covering roughly 3.2 million Model 3 sedans built between 2017 and 2026 under an upgraded "Full Self-Driving" Engineering Analysis, and another examining around 2.88 million Teslas over FSD-related traffic violations such as running red lights and crossing into oncoming lanes.
Tesla has also faced scrutiny for allegedly failing to properly report crashes involving Autopilot and FSD.
