A Tesla Model 3 Crashes Into a House and Kills a Woman: U.S. Government Investigates
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened a federal investigation into the incident in Katy, Texas, where a Tesla Model 3 left the road and crashed into a residence, killing a 76-year-old woman inside. The agency confirmed that it has launched the review after the driver told deputies that the vehicle was on Autopilot at the time of impact.
The incident occurred last Friday evening along Rose Hollow Lane, a residential street in Katy. The victim, identified as Martha Avila Mantilla, 76 years old, was in her living room when the car smashed through the brick facade of the house. The woman, described by her family as being in excellent health, had been living with her daughter and grandchildren for several years.
The driver, Michael Butler, 44 years old, reported to Harris County sheriff’s deputies that the vehicle was in Autopilot mode, showed no signs of intoxication, and cooperated with investigators. Surveillance camera footage released by the victim's family shows the Model 3 accelerating down the street before hitting a curb and crashing into the house. A witness in the vicinity estimated a speed between 60 and 70 miles per hour, approximately 97-113 km/h, at the time of the impact.
Tesla Crashes Into a House and Kills a Woman: According to the Company, It Is Not Autopilot’s Fault
Tesla has offered a different version of events. Ashok Elluswamy, Vice President of Autopilot Software at the company, stated on social media that the onboard data shows the driver pressed the accelerator to 100%, manually disabling the assisted driving, with the vehicle reaching 117 km/h with the pedal still pressed to the floor after the impact. Elon Musk reinforced this, claiming that the FSD system maintains a low speed on residential roads and that the software's involvement in a crash at that speed "does not make sense".
Yup. In this case, the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100% of the accel pedal in this residential area. They reached a speed of 73 mph during the crash, and had the accelerator pressed even after the crash. -- Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) June 22, 2026
The investigation is part of an ongoing case that was already opened in March 2026, when the NHTSA had elevated the review of the Full Self-Driving software to Engineering Analysis, the last formal step before a potential recall, concerning about 3.2 million Tesla vehicles among the Model 3s produced from 2017 to 2026, the same generation involved in the Katy crash. Another separate investigation concerns 2.88 million vehicles for alleged traffic violations committed by the software, such as running a red light or invading the opposite lane.
On the branding front, Tesla stopped using the name Autopilot on new vehicles in January 2026, following a ruling in California that mandated the removal of the name deemed misleading. However, millions of vehicles still on the road retain that software name, which raises the question of whether Autopilot or FSD Supervised was active in the Model 3 in Katy: both systems remain Level 2 and require constant supervision by the driver.
Investigators will now have to analyze the black box and logs of the vehicle to determine whether a driving assistance system was indeed active, at what speed, and what commands were given by the driver in the moments before the impact. The Harris County sheriff’s office has also announced it will forward the records to the local prosecutor's office to assess any potential criminal liability.