Tesla Driver Who Crashed into House 'Speeding While Autonomous Driving Was On'... Charged with Negligent Homicide

Tesla Driver Who Crashed into House 'Speeding While Autonomous Driving Was On'... Charged with Negligent Homicide

Claimed to have used "FSD feature," but sped at 117 km/h after disabling basic settings

In connection with an accident in Texas, USA, where a Tesla vehicle crashed into a house, killing a resident inside, the driver has been charged with negligent homicide.

The driver claimed to have been using the 'Full Self-Driving (FSD)' feature at the time of the accident, but investigations revealed that he had disabled the system by operating the pedals and then sped.

According to a report by the U.S. daily Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 2nd, investigative authorities charged Michael David Butler (44), the driver of the Tesla Model 3, with negligent homicide in connection with the incident where the vehicle crashed into a brick house in Katy, near Houston, Texas, on the 19th of last month, killing a resident in his 70s.

Butler told police and paramedics that he was on a delivery job, driving the vehicle in FSD mode, and lost consciousness after changing music on the touchscreen.

However, investigations by authorities, including securing the vehicle's black box, revealed that the driver had repeatedly pressed the accelerator pedal directly in the residential area where the accident occurred, disabling the basic FSD speed settings.

The vehicle reached a speed of up to 117 km/h at one point, which was more than double the speed limit for that residential area.

The brake pedal was not pressed even once during the last minute before the accident.

It was also found that he had complained that FSD was not 'aggressive' enough and had searched for related content on Google multiple times.

Tesla vehicles come standard with Autopilot, which maintains distance from other cars, and also offer the FSD feature, which handles everything from lane changes to driving using artificial intelligence (AI), with the driver only needing to supervise.

In the U.S., there is ongoing controversy that such names mislead consumers into believing there are perfect autonomous features, leading to accidents, and related lawsuits are also increasing.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has investigated more than 40 crash incidents related to advanced driver-assistance systems, including FSD.