A Texas family’s home turned into a crime scene Friday night when a Tesla allegedly operating on Autopilot tore off the road, punched through a brick wall and slammed into a room where 76-year-old Martha Avila was inside.
The fatal impact came on a residential street in Katy, where Michael Butler was behind the wheel of a Tesla Model 3.
Butler told investigators he had been using the car’s Autopilot mode at the time.
Investigators said the car drifted from its lane, left the street and plowed into the residence.
Doorbell video captured the Tesla crossing an intersection and then angling hard toward Avila’s home.
The crash tore through brick and carried the vehicle all the way into the playroom. Inside were Avila, two parents and three young children.
Avila was flown to a hospital by Life Flight but did not survive. Her devastated family told KHOU the loss was unbearable.
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‘She (Avila) didn’t deserve to go this way,’ the grief-stricken family told KHOU.
Barbour later posted the surveillance footage herself. “This is the Tesla driver flying into my home. My mom didn’t deserve this,” Barbour said.
Barbour said the children were at a neighbor’s home while the adults rushed to the hospital.
‘My three kids were at my neighbor’s when we went to the hospital to check on my mom,” Barbour said. ‘And then they told us they couldn’t save her.’
She also described the crushing aftermath of having to tell the children their grandmother was gone.
Barbour said the family had been forced into a hotel and was still reeling from the night before.
Justin Barbour said he had stepped away from the stove only seconds before the impact.
Butler was transported by ambulance, with investigators reporting no signs that he was intoxicated.
Authorities did not release his condition and said he was cooperating. Investigators have not determined what caused the crash.
Sgt. Alex Turman told ABC’s Alex Presha that the Autopilot question remains part of the investigation.
‘We’re digging into that. That’s a line of investigation for sure,’ Turman said when asked about the vehicle’s automated systems.
Turman said investigators were working with people familiar with Tesla vehicles and with Butler to determine ‘what role the driver’s control over the car played in this crash.’
The fatal Katy crash came amid a string of alarming incidents involving vehicles that appeared to be operating with driver-assistance or self-driving technology.
A California highway video in May showed another unsettling Tesla moment: an elderly Cybertruck driver apparently asleep as the vehicle continued down the road.
The clip, sent to KRON and later posted online, appeared to show the EV traveling while the unidentified driver dozed.
Austin residents were already angry in April over a self-driving Avride vehicle that allegedly killed a duck near Mueller Lake Park.
One witness described the car moving through the park area without hesitation.
‘I saw an Avride self-driving car, with a person in the driver’s seat not touching the wheel, run over and kill a duck near the park,’ the witness wrote.
‘It didn’t slow down or hesitate at all, just steamrolled right through, and the person inside did not stop to see what happened, just kept on driving.’
The same witness alleged the vehicle had already run a stop sign and nearly hit them before reaching the duck near what looked like a nest.
Avride responded by saying it was reviewing the incident and changing local operations.
The Austin-based company began testing its vehicles locally last summer after years of self-driving development.
The duck’s death followed another animal fatality involving an autonomous vehicle in San Francisco.
In San Francisco, neighborhood cat KitKat was killed in October after a Waymo robotaxi struck him near Randa’s Market.
Mike Zeidan, who owned the cat and the corner store, said the collision happened around 11:30 p.m. Oct. 27.
After KitKat was found under the car, an employee took him for emergency care, where he was pronounced dead.
An anonymous complaint later claimed the robotaxi made no apparent effort to avoid him.
Tesla’s own Full Self-Driving system has also faced scrutiny in crashes involving animals and trains.
Dashcam footage from October 2024 showed a Tesla using Full Self-Driving heading straight into a deer in the roadway.
The driver, Paul S, said the system kept going into the animal without braking.
‘Huge surprise after getting a dozen false stops every day!’ he added.
Another Full Self-Driving incident that year involved a Tesla approaching an active railroad crossing.
In the footage, fog hangs over the road as the car nears flashing crossing signals, swerves right and hits the crossing arm.
A Tesla crash report put the car at about 60 mph on a road with a 55 mph limit.
Photos later showed heavy damage to the front passenger side and a front wheel bent sharply out of place.
Autonomous vehicles have also created problems for emergency responders.
In March, emergency crews heading to a deadly downtown Austin mass shooting were delayed by a driverless Waymo robotaxi.
Waymo fail – Austin TX pic.twitter.com/teK5gbxBPI
— Tony (@ELChippie) March 2, 2026
Witness video showed the Waymo positioned across the roadway near West 6th and Nueces, with an ambulance stuck behind it.
The robotaxi finally crept forward and turned toward what looked like a parking-garage entrance.
By then, the ambulance had already backed up and taken another route.
