NTSB says driver accelerated before fatal Tesla crash
A preliminary NTSB report says Full Self-Driving was on, but the driver pressed the accelerator to 100% before a fatal Texas crash.
By James Whitfield · Staff Writer
2 min read
The National Transportation Safety Board said a Tesla driver pressed the accelerator pedal fully before a fatal Texas crash, even though the vehicle’s Full Self-Driving system was engaged. The preliminary finding matters because the driver had told police the car’s autopilot feature was on at the time of the crash, according to Ars Technica.
The crash killed a grandmother in Texas, Ars Technica reported. The NTSB’s early report does not make a final finding on the cause of the collision.
According to Ars Technica, the driver, 44-year-old Michael Butler, told police last month that the autopilot feature was engaged when the crash occurred. Tesla CEO Elon Musk challenged that account on X, saying Butler must have taken control because, in Musk’s view, Full Self-Driving moves slowly on neighborhood streets and the crash happened at high speed.
Tesla’s vice president of AI software, Ashok Elluswamy, also said internal company data showed driver input before impact, Ars Technica reported. Elluswamy said the data indicated the driver overrode the self-driving system by pushing the accelerator pedal all the way down in a residential area.
NTSB confirms system was active
The NTSB’s preliminary findings matched Tesla’s account on that point. The agency said Full Self-Driving was active at the time of the crash, but electronic data showed the driver overrode FSD Supervised by pressing the accelerator to 100%.
The preliminary report leaves key questions unresolved. The NTSB has not yet determined what caused the crash, and its findings released Wednesday address the vehicle data rather than assign fault.
Tesla markets the system as Full Self-Driving, but the NTSB referred to it as FSD Supervised in its preliminary findings. The agency’s wording indicates the driver remains part of the operation while the system is in use.
The findings give investigators an early timeline for the final moments before impact. They also undercut the specific claim that the crash occurred while the vehicle was operating without a driver override, according to the NTSB data described by Ars Technica.
This story draws on original reporting from Ars Technica.