technology
Tesla Vehicle Strikes Katy Home, Killing 76-Year-Old Woman; Driver and Tesla Dispute Role of Automated Systems
A Tesla struck a residence in Katy, Texas, on Friday, resulting in the death of Martha Avila. The driver reported using automated driving assistance, leading to statements from company executives and a federal investigation.
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A Tesla vehicle struck the front of a home in Katy, Texas, on Friday, killing 76-year-old Martha Avila. The driver told police that the vehicle's automated driving assistance was active during the crash in the residential area. Jennifer Barbour and Justin Barbour filed a lawsuit against driver Michael Butler and Tesla.
The complaint alleges the crash resulted from the driver's negligence and defects in the vehicle's Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems. Tesla vice president of AI software Ashok Elluswamy stated the driver manually overrode the system by pressing the accelerator to 100 percent in the residential area.
Elon Musk said Monday that full self-driving software could not have caused the high-speed crash.
Musk wrote on X that the system drives slowly through neighborhood streets and that the reported speed made no sense. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a special crash investigation into the incident. The agency had escalated its probe of Tesla's full self-driving software from a preliminary evaluation to an engineering analysis in March.
That ongoing review covers nine other crashes, including one fatal incident, in which the system allegedly failed to detect poor driving conditions and alert drivers in time.
