A woman is dead after a Tesla in autopilot mode crashed through her Texas home Friday night, authorities said.
The driver, identified as Michael Butler, was traveling east in a Tesla Model 3 about 8 p.m. when he crashed through a brick home in the Houston suburb of Katy, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
The car struck 76-year-old Martha Avila, who was in the home. She was airlifted to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead, the sheriff’s department said.
Butler told authorities that the vehicle was in self-driving mode at the time of the crash. The sheriff’s office said Butler showed no signs of intoxication and was cooperative during the investigation.
“At this time, investigators have found no evidence of a mechanical malfunction,” the sheriff’s office told NBC News Tuesday. “However, it is important to note that the investigation is not complete. Once all evidence has been gathered, the investigative file will be presented to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office to determine whether criminal charges are appropriate.”
The District Attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Butler, who was also injured in the crash, was taken to a nearby hospital. Efforts to contact him were unsuccessful.
Tesla did not respond to multiple requests for comment. But in a social media post Monday night, CEO Elon Musk responded to a news story about the crash.
“FSD drives slowly through neighborhood streets, and this was a high-speed crash!” he wrote on X, referring to the vehicle’s Full Self-Driving mode.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Monday that it is opening a special investigation into the crash.
A spokesperson for the law firm Zehl & Associates said in a statement that it planned to file a lawsuit on behalf of Avila’s family.
Jennifer Carson, who lives a few doors down from Avila, said she was at home Friday night watching a movie with a friend when she heard the crash.
“It sounded like thunder,” she said.
Security video that was captured by Carson’s neighbor and shared with NBC News showed the car driving through the subdivision in the moments before impact. Carson, who also saw the video, said she couldn’t believe how fast the Tesla appeared to be moving.
“I don’t know how someone could have gotten as fast as they did,” she said.
Authorities have said Butler’s Tesla was moving at a “high rate of speed” before the crash. Carson said she often hears cars revving their engines and speeding down her street and in the surrounding neighborhood.
Carson didn’t know Avila or her family well, but she said they’ve lived in the neighborhood for years. Another neighbor who spoke to NBC affiliate KPRC of Houston described Avila as a second mother.
“It’s a tragedy,” she told the station.
Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving modes have been contentious features in some Tesla vehicles since their debut.
In December 2023, Tesla recalled more than 2 million cars after regulators said the company hadn’t done enough to ensure that drivers were paying attention when Autopilot is activated.
The recall came after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began investigating Tesla’s Autopilot over a series of accidents involving the technology.
In December 2025, a California judge ruled that Tesla’s marketing around Autopilot and Full Self-Driving modes had been deceptive and that the company had falsely implied its cars were fully autonomous, which they are not.
