Tesla Crash Into Home Kills Woman - Driver-Assist At Fault? Elon Musk Refutes Claim

Tesla Model 3 reportedly using a driving-assistance system crashed through a house in Texas, USA, killing a 76-year-old woman inside. Based on the reports, the car left the road and plowed through a house at high speed. While the investigation into the incident continues, allegations are that the vehicle was in an automated driving-assistance system at the time of the collision, while it remains to be specified whether the system was Tesla's Autopilot or Full Self-Driving (Supervised).

Yes, this makes no sense. FSD drives slowly through neighborhood streets and this was a high speed crash!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 22, 2026

Tesla Crash That Killed A Woman

As per local authorities, the 44-year-old Michael Butler was driving the car at the time of the incident. He allegedly drifted out of his lane, left the road, and crashed into a house. Investigators said Butler told authorities that a driver-assist system was active at the time of the collision.

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ABC News reported that the impact pushed the Tesla through the home's exterior wall and hit Martha Avila Mantilla, who was inside. She was flown to a nearby hospital but later died from her injuries. Her family said the crash happened in an area of the house often used by children, though no one else was seriously hurt.

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Authorities said Butler was injured as well, showed no signs of intoxication, and has been cooperating with investigators. No charges have been filed so far, and the investigation is still ongoing.

Yup. In this case, the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100% of the accel pedal in this residential area. They reached a speed of 73 mph during the crash, and had the accelerator pressed even after the crash.

— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) June 22, 2026

Elon Musk's Reaction

The reports of the incident blaming the driver assistance system were shared on X and caught Elon Musk's attention. He responded by denying allegations, he said, "Yes, this makes no sense." Explaining the subject, he claimed that the Full-Self Driving (FSD) is programmed to drive slowly through neighbourhood streets. Meanwhile, the crash was at high-speed.

Supporting Elon Musk, Tesla AI boss Ashok Elluswamy said, "Yup. In this case, the driver manually overrode the self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100% of the accel pedal in this residential area. They reached a speed of 73 mph during the crash, and had the accelerator pressed even after the crash."