Elon Musk denies Tesla’s Autopilot caused crash that killed grandmother

A family in Harris County has sued Tesla after a Model 3 drove into a Texas house and killed 76-year-old Martha Avila. In a complaint filed this week, Jennifer Barbour, Avila’s daughter, and Barbour’s husband Justin say they are seeking more than $1 million in damages following the crash.

The vehicle’s driver, Michael Butler, told police the car’s automated driver-assist feature was engaged when he lost control. Police say they are still investigating whether the feature was in use and that Butler was not intoxicated and has been cooperating. Tesla rejects the claim that Full Self Driving caused the crash; CEO Elon Musk posted that FSD drives slowly through neighborhood streets and that the high speed indicated the technology did not cause the incident.

Tesla’s vice president of AI software, Ashok Elluswamy, said Butler manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator to 100 percent, reached a speed of 73 mph, and had the accelerator pressed after the crash, a claim the company made without sharing evidence.

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