A Tesla Model 3 slammed into a home in Katy, Texas on June 20, killing 76-year-old Martha Avila. The driver, 44-year-old Michael Butler, reportedly told authorities the car was operating under an automated driving assistance system. Tesla says the data tells a very different story.
Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s AI chief, posted on X that vehicle logs show Butler “manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100%.” According to Elluswamy, the car hit 73 mph in a residential neighborhood, and the accelerator remained engaged even through the collision.
What Tesla’s data actually shows
The crash happened around 8 p.m. in a residential area of Katy, a suburb west of Houston. The Harris County Sheriff’s Office told ABC News that Butler was using the vehicle “with an automated driving assistance system.” That framing set off alarm bells about FSD safety.
Tesla moved quickly to dispute the narrative. Elluswamy’s post on X laid out the company’s version of events: the driver took manual control by stomping the accelerator, which by design overrides the FSD system. In Tesla’s architecture, physical pedal input from the driver always supersedes the software’s commands.
