Self-Driving Tesla Kills Texas Woman After Crashing Into Her Home
on Jun 22, 2026
A Texas woman was killed inside her home when a Tesla car that was allegedly in self-driving mode crashed into the side of her house.
This incident occurred around 8 p.m. on Friday, June 19, in Katy, Texas, with Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez confirming the death of the victim, 76-year-old Martha Avila.
The car was captured on video crashing into the home by a doorbell camera.
An investigation is now underway, with the owner of the car — who was reportedly in the driver seat at the time of the crash — cooperating with law enforcement.
See Video Of The Fatal Self-Driving Tesla Crash
According to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office report, the car in question that crashed into Martha Avila’s home was a Tesla Model 3.
The driver, identified in an incident report as Michael Butler, “failed to drive in a single lane,” with the report noting that “Butler’s Tesla entered through the brick residence, at a high rate of speed.”
Present in the home at the time of the crash was Avila’s daughter, Jennifer Barbour, as well as her husband and their three children, according to local news outlet KHOU-11.
Barbour shared the video of the crash, writing on Facebook, “This is the car flying into my home. My mom didn’t deserve this.”
This video was captured by the doorbell camera, allegedly showing the vehicle in question go through Avila’s yard before colliding into the house:
The owner of the home, Martha Avila, was transported by helicopter to a local hospital, but was “later pronounced deceased due to the injures she sustained from the crash,” the incident report notes.
One of Barbour’s nieces set up a GoFundMe for the family, writing, “The home is now uninhabitable and under investigation, forcing our family into temporary housing while they cope with this unimaginable loss.”
As of the afternoon of June 22, the GoFundMe has raised $22,898.
Further, the incident report states, “There were no signs of intoxication on Butler and he was [cooperative] during the investigation.”
Constable Terry Allbritton wrote on his Facebook page that he and his deputies are investigating the crash alongside the Sheriff’s Office, noting, “The driver told deputies he had the Tesla on auto pilot. He was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital.”
See the first responders inside Martha Avila’s house as they evaluate damage and work to remove the car from the scene:
Tesla im „Autopilot“-Modus rast in Texas direkt in ein Wohnhaus und tötet eine 76-jährige Frau. 🚗💥
— Der Prophet (@AldousHuxIey) June 22, 2026
Wieder ein tödliches Opfer blinden Technik-Vertrauens.
Die Software versagt, Menschen sterben, aber Hauptsache, wir spielen alle Versuchskaninchen für autonome Träume. 🛑🇺🇸 #Tesla pic.twitter.com/ZyOsMK0spT
Tesla Touts Safety Of Its Self-Driving Cars
Tesla has been offering varying degrees of self-driving programs in its vehicles since 2015, with the company, owned by Elon Musk, touting in its safety report as of June 22, 2026, that Full Self-Driving (Supervised) “keeps you safer.”
The report goes on to say that with its Full Self-Driving mode — which is meant to be supervised, meaning that the person in the driver seat is alert — there are seven times fewer major and minor collisions, and five times fewer off-highway collisions.
Video from Tesla shows the Full Self-Driving car avoiding colliding with a car that goes through a red light at an intersection, as well as stopping to miss a dog that ran out into the street in a residential area.
Further, a chart provided by Tesla shows that Full-Self Driving cars reportedly have minor collisions every 5.5 million miles, compared to ordinary cars that are in minor collisions every 660,000 miles driven.
See the chart, here:
This is a developing story.
