This happened on Friday night.
A 76-year-old woman was killed after a Tesla crashed through a home in the Katy area on Friday evening, authorities say.
According to the Harris County Precinct 5 Constable’s Office, the Tesla crashed into a home in the 21300 block of Rose Hollow Lane near Park Brush Lane at 8:30 p.m. The driver told investigators that he had the Tesla on Autopilot, according to the constable’s office.
“We’re still evaluating what caused that car to fail to control its speed just before this crash,” said Sgt. A. Turman. “We’ve asked people who are familiar with Teslas, as well as the driver involved in the car, to see what role the driver’s control over the car played in this crash.”
Officials said the driver of the Tesla was taken to the hospital by ambulance, and the older woman, who was inside the house, was taken by helicopter to Memorial Hermann. According to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, the woman was later pronounced dead.
[…]
HCSO stated the driver failed to drive in a single lane, left the roadway, and struck the house at a high rate of speed.
Video obtained by Eyewitness News showed the car speeding along the street moments before the crash.
As of Monday, that story is national news.
The driver, Michael Butler, was in a Tesla Model 3 about 8 p.m. local time and operating the car “with an automated driving assistance system,” the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on Saturday.
The crash happened in Katy, Texas, about 30 miles west of Houston in Harris County.
Mr. Butler “failed to drive in a single lane, left the roadway and struck the residence” at 1907 Blooming Park Lane, the authorities said.
His Tesla “entered through the brick residence at a high rate of speed,” and struck Martha Avila, who was inside, according to the sheriff’s office.
The office said Ms. Avila was taken by a medical helicopter to a hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.
Investigators said Mr. Butler showed no signs of intoxication and was cooperative during the investigation, which is in progress.
A front-door video camera that captured the crash showed the Tesla plowing into the house through its driveway. It was not clear how fast the Tesla was traveling.
[…]
The autopilot function, Tesla’s driver-assistance technology, is a popular feature among drivers but it has had issues over the years.
Tesla’s owners’ manuals tell drivers that they should keep their hands on the wheel and take over if anything goes wrong.
In 2023, Tesla recalled more than two million vehicles after federal regulators said the automaker had not done enough to ensure that drivers remained attentive when using the software that can steer, accelerate and brake cars automatically.
That recall came after an investigation into the driver-assistance system that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began in August 2021 after a series of crashes, some fatal, involving the technology.
In 2024, Tesla settled a lawsuit that blamed the automaker’s driver-assistance software for the death of a California man in 2018.
There’s some doorbell camera video from a neighbor’s house that shows the car going by at a very high rate of speed, just before the crash. Right now, we don’t know a lot about what happened. I am reminded that there was a fatal crash of a Tesla in The Woodlands that was initially blamed on autopilot but turned out to be the result of driver actions. I say that to note that what we are hearing now may end up being revised as the investigation moves forward. From seeing the video evidence we have, it’s clear that car was being operated in an unsafe manner. My condolences to the family of Martha Avila. I hope you are able to get a clear answer about what happened. Click2Houston and KHOU have more.
UPDATE: A lawsuit will be forthcoming.
The family of a woman who died after a Tesla crashed into her Houston-area home plans to sue the electric car company as well as the driver — who reportedly told authorities the vehicle was in autopilot mode — according to a spokesperson for the law firm hired by the family.
A lawsuit had not been filed as of Monday afternoon, but a spokesperson for Houston-based Zehl & Associates said its attorneys were attempting to have it filed by Tuesday. The firm announced Monday that it was enlisted by the family of Martha Avila, 76, who died after the Tesla crashed into her Katy home on Friday night.
I will keep an eye on that.
Driver is claiming that the vehicle was on autopilot, Tesla is claiming that it wasn’t and that the driver was depressing the accelerator in the moments before the accident. Guess we’ll have to wait for what the NHTSA investigation determines: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-opens-probe-into-fatal-tesla-crash-into-texas-home-2026-06-22/