A Tesla Model 3 running Full Self-Driving killed a 76-year-old woman when it crashed into her Katy, Texas home last Friday — and Tesla says the driver is to blame.
Tesla AI head Ashok Elluswamy responded to the incident on X, claiming driver Michael Butler "manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100%." The Harris County Sheriff's Office had previously told ABC News that the vehicle was operating with an automated driving assistance system active at the time of the crash. Tesla's account and the sheriff's framing are not necessarily contradictory — FSD can be engaged while a driver still physically intervenes — but the sequence and timing of that override matters enormously to liability.
The "driver pressed the pedal" defense is one Tesla has reached for before, and it lands differently now that FSD is marketed as a system capable of handling roads without constant supervision. If the system was supposed to be managing the vehicle, the harder question is why it allowed a full-throttle override in a residential neighborhood rather than refusing or alerting. Regulators and plaintiff attorneys will want the data logs, not a post on X.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened hundreds of investigations into Tesla's driver-assistance systems over the past several years — this crash is unlikely to be the last word on who, or what, was really in control.