AI incident ·
Tesla Driver Reportedly Said Driver-Assistance Mode Was Engaged During Fatal Texas Home Crash
On this page 6 sections
In brief
An AI system built by Tesla and Automated Driving System Developers and deployed by Michael Butler and Drivers allegedly harmed Martha Avila, Home Occupants and 1 other.
- Risk domain
- Not classified
- Occurred
- Coverage
- 1 report
What happened
On June 19, 2026, Michael Butler's Tesla Model 3 reportedly left the roadway in Katy, Texas, and struck a home at high speed, killing resident Martha Avila. Butler reportedly told investigators that an automated driving-assistance system was engaged. Tesla's Autopilot vice president reportedly later said Butler had manually overridden self-driving by fully depressing the accelerator. Local authorities and NHTSA have opened investigations.
Laws on record for this risk area
No instrument on record yet covers this risk area where it happened. See the open queue.
Matched from the record's risk category and country to the instruments in effect recorded here: a law listed covers the area, which is not a finding that it applies to this incident. A reviewer can correct the match in the repository (data/external/incident_overrides.yaml).
News reports (1)
Titles link to the original publisher; report text is not reproduced here.
Who was involved
- Alleged deployer
- Michael Butler, Drivers
- Alleged developer
- Tesla, Automated Driving System Developers
- Alleged harmed party
- Martha Avila, Home Occupants, Building Occupants
Classification (MIT AI Risk Repository taxonomy)
- Risk domain
- —
- Risk subdomain
- —
- Causal entity
- —
- Intent
- —
- Timing
- —
- Harm level
- —
- Sectors
- —
- Countries
- —
Source record: incident #1552 on the AI Incident Database · all 1 report