Tesla driver charged with manslaughter for Texas crash that killed a woman in her home - Engadget

The incident is also being investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The driver of a Tesla Model 3 that crashed into a Texas home and killed an elderly woman has been charged with manslaughter, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Harris County Sheriff's Office. The incident happened last month when Michael Butler, who was driving a Tesla Model 3 using its Full Self-Driving mode, was involved in a high-speed collision in Katy, Texas that ended with the death of Martha Avila, according to the complaint. The sheriff's office complaint offered more details on the crash, claiming that Butler stepped on the accelerator and overrode his Tesla's self-driving mode while he was doing DoorDash deliveries. A few days after the incident, Ashok Elluswamy, vice president of AI at Tesla, posted on X that "the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100 percent" and "reached a speed of 73 mph during the crash." According to the sheriff's office, officials on the case got written consent from the the driver to search and seize the involved Tesla and his cellphone. The complaint said that there were multiple Google searches