The family of a 76-year-old woman killed when a Tesla ploughed into her home in Texas has sued Elon Musk’s company, alleging gross negligence, as the US government opens a second federal investigation into the crash.
Martha Avila died after a Tesla Model 3 struck her home in the Houston suburb of Katy on 19 June. The car’s driver, Michael Butler, told law enforcement that he had engaged the vehicle’s driver-assistance technology before the wreck, according to the Harris County sheriff’s department.
“Tesla faces a second US federal investigation and a lawsuit after a driver using driver-assistance tech crashed into a home, killing a 76-year-old woman.”
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced on Wednesday that it was launching an investigation into the crash, two days after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it was investigating.
Avila’s daughter, Jennifer Barbour, and her husband, Justin Barbour, filed a civil complaint on Tuesday in Texas’s state court system, claiming the Tesla Model 3’s “autopilot” and “full self‑driving” systems were defective. They argued that Tesla failed to warn users of the risks and that the company should be held liable for Martha’s wrongful death. The lawsuit seeks more than $1m in damages plus punitive damages, citing Tesla’s alleged “reckless disregard for a substantial risk of severe bodily injury”.
Justin Barbour said he was also injured in the crash. Avila was fatally pinned by the car and died later at a nearby hospital.
Tesla and Elon Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment. But on Monday night, Musk took to X, the social media platform he owns, to defend the company. “FSD drives slowly through neighborhood streets and this was a high speed crash!” he wrote.
Separately, Tesla’s vice-president of artificial intelligence software, Ashok Elluswamy, posted on X that “the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100% of the accel pedal in this residential area”.
The NTSB did not elaborate on the precise scope of its investigation, stating only that it had opened one. The case raises fresh questions about the safety of driver‑assistance systems and whether Tesla’s marketing of “Autopilot” and “Full Self‑Driving” lulls drivers into a false sense of security.