<\/p>\n
While Tesla is just beginning to experience the civil fallout from the fatal crash in a Houston, Texas, suburb last month, the driver of the vehicle is now facing legal consequences for his role.<\/p>\n
The Model 3 of Michael David Butler, 44, crashed into a home, killing a 76-year-old woman.<\/p>\n
Footage of the incident\u00a0shows the Tesla barreling down a residential street at high speed, Jalopnik noted. The mother of the family living inside said the crash sounded like an explosion. But the police incident report noted two pertinent details: Butler was not intoxicated at the time of the crash, and he said that he had Full Self-Driving engaged in the moments leading up to the accident.<\/p>\n
Tesla executives have denied that claim, but the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating the incident. Now criminal charges have been filed against the driver. <\/p>\n
Martha Avila was killed on June 19 in Katy, a suburb outside of Houston, when a Tesla with one of the company\u2019s ADAS systems activated crashed into her brick home, going at least 60 mph.<\/p>\n
By Tuesday, July 7, attorneys for the family had sued Tesla and Michael Butler, the driver of the Tesla Model 3, in Harris County District Court, alleging the vehicle features a \u201cdesign flaw\u201d that constitutes negligence,\u00a0NBC reported.<\/p>\n
Yet civil penalties appear to be the least pressing problem on Butler’s plate at the moment.<\/p>\n
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office post on social media indicates that its vehicular crimes division is charging Butler with manslaughter in connection with Martha Avila’s death. He was booked into Harris County jail last week, where his bail was reportedly set at $150,000, Global News reported.<\/p>\n
Butler told the Sheriff\u2019s Office that he was using Tesla Autopilot at the time of the crash. However, it should be noted that Tesla discontinued Autopilot earlier this year, replacing it with an ADAS known as \u201cself-driving\u201d (not to be confused with its level-2 autonomous system Full Self-Driving).<\/p>\n
According to the arrest affidavit seen by Reuters, Butler said he was making a DoorDash delivery when he changed the music on his vehicle’s touch screen before he eventually “passed out.”<\/p>\n
In addition to bail, Butler is required to wear an ankle monitor and not drive.<\/p>\n
While the NHTSA is still investigating, Tesla CEO\u00a0Elon Musk\u00a0has already commented on the incident, proclaiming on X (the former Twitter) that FSD could not have been involved. \u201cYes, this makes no sense. FSD drives slowly through neighborhood streets and this was a high-speed crash!\u201d\u00a0he wrote on June 22.<\/p>\n
Last August, a Florida jury ruled that the family of Naibel Benavides and crash survivor Dillon Angulo were entitled to a nearly quarter-billion-dollar award after driver George McGee crashed his Tesla into a vehicle they were standing near.<\/p>\n
McGee testified that he had Autopilot engaged when he killed the 22-year-old Benavides in Key Largo in 2019, but that his eyes were also off the road while he looked for the cellphone he had dropped.<\/p>\n
Although Tesla argued that data showed McGee had his foot on the accelerator, overriding Autopilot, in the moments before his vehicle crashed at over 60 mph, the jury found Tesla 33% responsible for the crash.<\/p>\n
That last little tidbit about McGee\u2019s foot being on the accelerator during the time of the crash is relevant because that seems to be Tesla\u2019s line of defense.<\/p>\n
Tesla\u00a0AI\u00a0VP Ashok Elluswamy also took to X to defend his technology, calling the early reporting that the driver was using Tesla FSD \u201cblatantly irresponsible reporting [that] does more harm to people than they realize.\u201d<\/p>\n
While he seemed to confirm that self-driving was engaged, \u201cthe driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100%,\u201d he said, adding that the driver had the accelerator pressed even after the crash.<\/p>\n
Tesla wants to give its drivers the ability to override FSD and press the accelerator to 100%, but that design decision is already attracting scrutiny in Europe.<\/p>\n
Tesla FSD has been approved in five European countries so far, and it appears headed for fast-track European Union approval as soon as Q1 2027.<\/p>\n
However, the technology is also facing tough scrutiny, with at least one of Sweden\u2019s transportation regulatory bodies recommending that the nation become one of the\u00a0highest-profile opposers of Tesla\u2019s FSD dreams in Europe.<\/p>\n
The Swedish Transport Administration (TRV) recommended that Tesla FSD (Supervised) not be approved for the European Union unless the system\u2019s ability to ignore speed limits is removed,\u00a0Reuters confirmed, citing a previously unreported letter obtained through a freedom of information request.<\/p>\n
The TRV sent the letter, dated April 30, to the EU\u2019s Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles, which is scheduled to reconvene on June 30 to discuss Tesla\u2019s approval ahead of a later official vote.<\/p>\n
Tesla FSD offers a \u201cspeed offset\u201d setting that lets users exceed posted speed limits by a margin the driver sets. But \u201callowing automated systems to systematically exceed legal speed limits\u2026 risks undermining both the legal framework and the expected safety benefits of vehicle automation,\u201d according to the letter.<\/p>\n
Related: Tesla faces lawsuit from family of victim killed in Texas home crash<\/strong><\/p>\n #Tesla #driver #faces #manslaughter #charge #fatal #crash<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While Tesla is just beginning to experience the civil fallout from the fatal crash in a Houston, Texas, suburb last month, the driver of the vehicle is now facing legal… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[246],"tags":[2859,148,1230,1751,3004,12774,2723],"class_list":["post-11185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-popular","tag-charge","tag-crash","tag-driver","tag-faces","tag-fatal","tag-manslaughter","tag-tesla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11185\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}