DoorDash Driver Charged With Killing Elderly Woman After Overriding Tesla’s Self-Driving Mode
Authorities charged a Texas man with manslaughter after investigators found the accelerator pedal pressed all the way down on his Tesla Model 3 before it crashed into a home, killing a grandmother.
Michael David Butler, 44, had been using Tesla’s self-driving mode as he made DoorDash pickups and deliveries. However, moments before his Tesla crashed into a home, taking the life of an elderly woman, its accelerator was pressed “pedal to the metal,” overriding the electric vehicle’s self-driving features, according to The Washington Post.
The victim, Martha Avila, 76, had been standing in the front room of her home when the Tesla struck a curb in front of her house and went airborne barreling into her home. She was airlifted to the hospital but was later pronounced dead, according to ABC News.
“In about six seconds, the accelerator pedal was pressed all the way down to 100%, ‘pedal to the metal’ and the vehicle reached a speed of 73 miles per hour, more than double the speed limit on the residential street,” Jae Philipbar, a deputy sheriff and investigator with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said according to the Houston Chronicle.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for additional comment.
Investigators found that Butler had made multiple google searches about Tesla’s self-driving mode not being “aggressive enough,” before crashing into the home, according to the outlet. Butler had been “indicating an apparent frustration with Tesla’s Full Self Driving mode.”
Philipbar reviewed data from the vehicle and said Butler had, “activated and used full-self driving mode to operate the Tesla to travel to multiple DoorDash pick-ups and deliveries in the hours and minutes leading up to the crash, without experiencing any mechanical failure, collisions, or other driving incidents,” according to the Houston Chronicle.
“FSD mode was designed and is programmed to never travel at excessive or dangerous speeds in any locations, unless the driver overrides the speed and gains control of the speed by pressing on the accelerator pedal,” the deputy sheriff said, according to the outlet.
Avila’s family members filed a lawsuit against Tesla after the incident seeking $1 million in damages, according to the Houston Chronicle.
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