HISPI Project Cerebellum HISPI PROJECT CEREBELLUM

Tesla Driver Reportedly Said Driver-Assistance Mode Was Engaged During Fatal Texas Home Crash

June 19, 2026

On June 19, 2026, Michael Butler's Tesla Model 3 reportedly left the roadway in Katy, Texas, and struck a home at high speed, killing resident Martha Avila. Butler reportedly told investigators that an automated driving-assistance system was engaged. However, Tesla's Autopilot vice president later disputed this claim, stating that Butler had manually overridden self-driving by fully depressing the accelerator. Local authorities and NHTSA have opened investigations.

This incident raises concerns about the reliability of driver-assistance systems in emergency situations. The HISPI Project Cerebellum TAIM is working to improve AI governance and ensure safe and secure AI practices. For more information, contributors—JOIN US—to learn more.
Alleged deployer
michael-butler, drivers
Alleged developer
tesla, automated-driving-system-developers
Alleged harmed parties
martha-avila, home-occupants, building-occupants

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Source

Data from the AI Incident Database (AIID). Cite this incident: https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/1552

Data source

Incident data is from the AI Incident Database (AIID).

When citing the database as a whole, please use:

McGregor, S. (2021) Preventing Repeated Real World AI Failures by Cataloging Incidents: The AI Incident Database. In Proceedings of the Thirty-Third Annual Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI-21). Virtual Conference.

Pre-print on arXiv · Database snapshots & citation guide

We use weekly snapshots of the AIID for stable reference. For the official suggested citation of a specific incident, use the “Cite this incident” link on each incident page.