Man charged with manslaughter over Tesla crash originally blamed on car’s self-driving mode | Texas
A man who was allegedly in autonomous driving mode of a Tesla Model 3 that recently crashed into a house near Houston and killed a 76-year-old woman inside was imprisoned for involuntary manslaughter.
Michael Butler’s arrest in the June 19 death of Martha Avila was announced late Wednesday in a Facebook post by Ed Gonzalez, sheriff of Harris County, Texas.
Butler, 44, remained in custody at Gonzalez’s office as of Friday morning on $150,000 bail, according to jail records. He had a hearing tentatively scheduled for July 6.
His arrest comes as Avila’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit, as well as a case that is under review by federal investigators.
Butler was traveling in his Tesla in the Houston suburb of Katy around 8 p.m. local time when the car allegedly crashed through the front wall of Avila’s home, fatally pinning him.
Investigators said Butler, who was injured in the wreck, showed no signs of intoxication and was cooperating with investigators. He allegedly told sheriff’s deputies that he was using the autonomous driving technology the car was equipped with, but it’s not yet clear what role, if any, he played in the fatal crash.
Before Butler’s arrest on suspicion of manslaughter, Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s vice president of artificial intelligence software, reported that the driver involved in Avila’s death in the X had “manually overridden self-driving by pressing the accelerator pedal to 100%.” [the] Residential area”.
Tesla’s CEO, trillionaire Elon Musk, similarly said “it was a high-speed crash!” in the X he owns.
Texas law defines manslaughter as recklessly causing the death of an individual. In most cases, it is considered a second-degree crime and can be punishable by two to 10 years in prison.
Lawyers for Avila’s family previously said they filed a civil lawsuit on June 23 arguing that Musk’s electric vehicle maker Tesla should be held responsible for his death. They also named Butler as a defendant.
In the case, it was claimed that there was gross negligence in Avila’s death and that there was no warning that the Tesla Model 3’s “autopilot” and “full autonomous driving systems” were defective.
A day after Avila’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced that it had opened an investigation into the crash. This was two days after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it was investigating the crash.
These investigations join a growing number of investigations into Tesla.
Since 2016, NHTSA has opened nearly 50 special investigations into Tesla crashes believed to have involved advanced driver assistance systems, Reuters reported. Nearly two dozen deaths were reported in these crashes.
And NHTSA in March stepped up its investigation into 3.2 million Teslas equipped with fully autonomous driving technology over concerns the system might fail to detect or warn drivers in poor visibility.
Tesla has recalled nearly 2 million cars, almost all of its electric vehicles, on US roads in 2023 to ensure drivers are more careful when using the autopilot feature. Tesla said the technology allows vehicles to change direction, accelerate and brake in the lanes in which they travel. The manufacturer said fully autonomous driving allows vehicles to obey traffic signals as well as change lanes.
Tesla added that both technologies require “fully attentive” drivers with their hands on the car’s steering wheel.
In early 2025, Tesla car sales fell and its shares fell as a result of the boycott that followed Musk’s entry into US federal politics. He temporarily led the Trump administration’s budget-cutting “department of government efficiency” (Doge) initiative and has also embraced extremist political candidates in Europe.
But strong numbers released Thursday show Tesla’s automotive business is gaining momentum again.
Reuters contributed reporting
