Tesla driver who blamed crash on autopilot pressed accelerator 100%, NTSB finds

The NTSB found that a Tesla driver who blamed a fatal crash on Autopilot had pressed the accelerator pedal to 100%, overriding the Full Self-Driving feature. The driver, Michael Butler, told police he passed out and did not remember the crash, which killed a grandmother in Texas. Tesla CEO Elon Musk had disputed the driver's claim, and the NTSB's preliminary report confirmed the company's internal data.

On Wednesday, the National Transportation Safety Board NTSB released preliminary findings https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/Pages/HWY26FH014.aspx verifying Elon Musk’s and Tesla’s claims that a driver involved in a fatal Texas crash that killed a grandmother https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/06/elon-musk-denies-teslas-autopilot-caused-crash-that-killed-grandmother/ overrode Full Self Driving in the moments ahead of impact. Last month, 44-year-old Michael Butler told police that the autopilot feature was engaged at the time of the crash. On X, Musk disputed the claim, writing that Butler must have overridden the feature because “FSD drives slowly through neighborhood streets, and this was a high-speed crash ” Moving to back Musk’s claim, Tesla’s vice president of AI software, Ashok Elluswamy, said that internal data showed “the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100 percent of the accel pedal in this residential area.” NTSB’s preliminary report, which does not yet determine what caused the crash, confirmed Tesla’s claims. Their probe found that FSD was engaged at the time of the crash, but electronic data showed “the driver manually overrode FSD Supervised by pressing the accelerator pedal to 100 percent.” According to a local ABC News report https://abc7news.com/story/katy-texas-crash-michael-butler-charged-manslaughter-tesla-crashes-home-killing-woman/19443106/ , Texas cops searched Butler’s phone with his permission and found that he was working as a DoorDash driver when the crash occurred. The phone data showed that Butler had no issues with the Tesla making multiple prior delivery stops, but Butler allegedly told police he “passed out” and didn’t remember leaving the highway or turning onto the residential streets.