By Patrick George
A Texas man faces manslaughter charges after the Tesla he was driving crashed into a Houston-area home in June, killing a woman inside.
Michael David Butler, 44, claimed to law-enforcement officials that his 2025 Tesla Model 3 was operating with its semiautonomous Full Self-Driving (Supervised) driver-assistance feature when it collided with the home in suburban Katy, Texas, on June 19. A woman inside the home, 76-year-old Martha Avila, died at an area hospital following the crash, according to court documents.
Tesla executives disputed Butler's account, saying on social media the car's driver pressed the accelerator pedal down and kept it pressed even after the crash.
Butler remains in custody at the Harris County jail, according to court records. His attorney didn't respond to a request for comment.
The crash triggered an investigation from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the top auto regulator in the country.
According to an arrest affidavit, Butler was discovered by law-enforcement officials alone inside the car after the crash. He had no serious injuries following the wreck, the affidavit said.
Butler told officials and paramedics that he was a DoorDash driver on a delivery run, and that he last remembered operating the car in "FSD" mode and changing the music on the car's touch screen before he "passed out." Neither alcohol nor drugs were found in his system, the affidavit said.
Investigators seized the Tesla's so-called "black box" and analyzed the dash-camera video and data within. They found that Butler manually pressed the accelerator pedal, "overriding the default FSD speed," several times in the neighborhood where the crash occurred. Investigators said the Tesla reached 73 miles an hour at one point, more than double the residential street's speed limit. The brake pedal wasn't applied in the final minute before the crash occurred, the affidavit said.
Investigators also said that Butler ran several Google searches on his phone, apparently frustrated that FSD wasn't "aggressive" enough, the affidavit said.
Tesla's FSD controls steering, acceleration and braking, but requires close human supervision and intervention if it disengages. The technology is a key pillar of Tesla's shift toward automated driving, robotics and AI over making and selling electric vehicles.
The system has been under scrutiny for years, including NHTSA opening more than 40 investigations into crashes. Automakers are required to report all fatal crashes involving advanced driver-assistance systems to the federal regulator.
Write to Patrick George at patrick.george@wsj.com