In the days after a driver crashed their Tesla into a Katy home, fatally striking a 76-year-old woman, a federal agency launched an investigation into Tesla, and Elon Musk cast doubt on his company’s driver assistance technology playing a role in the crash.
“Yes, this makes no sense,” Musk wrote on X Monday.
“(Full Self Driving) drives slowly through neighborhood streets and this was a high speed crash!”
Ashok Elluswamy, director of Tesla’s Autopilot software, backed up Musk’s comment, alleging that the “driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way,” in a post on X.
Still, investigations into the crash are under way, as Tesla faces repeated probes from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration over the safety of its driver assistance technologies.
A spokesperson for the highway safety administration told the Wall Street Journal Monday that the agency is launching a special investigation into the crash.
Special crash investigations involve the agency’s most “in-depth and detailed” crash data, according to the agency.
Martha Avila, 76, was flown to Memorial Hermann medical center June 19 after a Tesla Model 3 crashed into her front room.
Avila was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Authorities have yet to determine the cause of the crash.
NHTSA probes Tesla technology
The probe opened Monday is not the first time the agency has investigated Tesla.
Over 3.2 million Tesla vehicles could be recalled after the agency in March escalated an investigation to the final procedural step before it can issue a defect decision.
The agency opened the probe in October 2024 to assess reports that Full Self Driving technology failed to detect degraded roadway conditions.
The agency also opened an investigation into over 2.8 million Tesla vehicles in October 2025 to assess reports that the technology failed to stop at red lights and detect wrong way driving.
Legislators accuse Tesla of releasing misleading safety statistics
Three days before the fatal crash in Katy, Senators Edwards Markey and Richard Blumenthal sent a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration urging the agency to investigate allegedly “misleading and incomplete safety statistics” the company has put out to promote the technology.
The senators, in their letter, alleged that the agency’s reporting requirements are not robust enough to get a full picture of all crashes related to Tesla vehicles.
“Misleading safety statistics can encourage drivers to over-rely on (Full Self Driving), obscure whether the technology is creating safety defects, and undermine (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s) ability to evaluate risks associated with vehicles already operating on public roads,” the senators wrote.
Lawsuits over Tesla technologies
Houston law firm Zehl & Associates told media Monday that it plans to file suit against Tesla and the driver on behalf of Avila’s family. Numerous people in recent years have sued Tesla over these technologies.
The first verdict against Tesla came in 2019 after a Miami jury awarded over $240 million to victims of a Florida crash involving a Tesla vehicle using Autopilot.
A federal judge in February upheld the jury’s verdict after Tesla tried to overturn it, Reuters reported.
Houston attorney Tony Buzbee is representing a Katy woman whose Tesla allegedly “suddenly and unexplainably” started accelerating at “blistering” speed when she engaged Full Self Driving while trying to leave her work parking lot.
The Tesla crashed into a light pole, and first responders had to extricate the woman from the car, according to the lawsuit.
The case was filed in Travis County in April.
The Houston Chronicle has identified at least four active cases in Harris County against Tesla over alleged failures of Full Self Driving or Autopilot.
Most recently, a Harris County resident filed suit against Tesla in February after her vehicle “suddenly and without warning” attempted to drive off an overpass in Houston, resulting in a crash.
