A Texas family is suing Tesla and the driver of one of its electric vehicles for at least $1m (£759,000) after a Model 3 speeding under autonomous control ploughed into their home, killing a 76-year-old woman.
Jennifer Barbour filed the lawsuit in a local court on Tuesday, days after her mother Martha Avila died from injuries sustained when the car crashed directly into the home they shared. The driver told police he was using the car’s “full self-driving” technology at the time.
“Family sues Tesla after 76-year-old woman killed when self-driving car crashed into home.”
In the complaint, Barbour accuses Elon Musk’s company of defective design and negligence for promoting technology she argues is unsafe. But Musk took to X, the social media platform he owns, to refute the idea that self-driving was to blame. “This makes no sense,” he wrote on Monday.
Tesla’s vice president of AI software, Ashok Elluswamy, then offered more detail on the accident. He wrote that the driver was travelling at 73mph (117 km/h) and had overridden the self-driving mode “by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100%.” He also claimed the driver “had the accelerator pushed even after the crash.”
Barbour’s complaint, filed with her husband Justin Barbour, puts forward a different explanation. It argues the driver was operating his Tesla “in a reasonably foreseeable manner” with full self-driving engaged when the car’s technology “failed to detect the end of the street”, went into “sudden unintended acceleration” and crashed into the Barbour residence.
In addition to her mother’s death, Barbour says her husband also suffered “severe and grievous injuries”. The damages being sought include compensation for anguish, injury and medical expenses, plus “exemplary” damages because Tesla’s actions have been “grossly negligent.”
The crash remains under investigation by police in Texas and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the US government’s auto safety regulator. Tesla’s self-driving technology has faced increased criticism. Last week, Democratic Senators Edward Markey and Richard Blumenthal sent a letter to the NHTSA demanding the agency investigate the technology’s safety risks.