Tesla has provided new details about the fatal Model 3 crash in Texas that claimed the life of 76-year-old Martha Avila, saying vehicle data shows the driver was pressing the accelerator pedal fully before and even after impact.
The additional information comes from Tesla’s Vice President of AI Software, Ashok Elluswamy, who responded to comments on X regarding the June 19 crash in Katy, Texas.
Elluswamy said Tesla’s data indicated the Model 3 reached 73 mph (117 km/h) in the residential neighbourhood before impact. More notably, the accelerator remained fully applied even after the vehicle struck the house.
The statement all but confirms the crash was caused by driver input rather than a malfunction of Tesla’s driver-assistance systems.
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
The driver had previously told authorities that Autopilot was active at the time of the collision. However, surveillance footage showed the vehicle traveling at a very high speed before leaving the roadway and crashing into a home, leading us to question whether Autopilot was responsible.
According to Tesla, the driver manually overrode the system by fully depressing the accelerator pedal. Tesla vehicles allow drivers to override Autopilot or Full Self-Driving (Supervised) at any time by applying accelerator input, with the software continuing to expect the driver to remain attentive and responsible for the vehicle and alerts appearing on the screen that FSD will not brake until the pedal is released.
Similar incidents involving claims of unintended acceleration have repeatedly been investigated over the years, with most cases ultimately traced back to drivers pressing the accelerator rather than the brake.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has already opened a Special Crash Investigation into the incident, a process routinely used for serious crashes involving advanced driver-assistance systems. The investigation remains ongoing, and federal authorities have not released their own findings.
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