A driver has been charged with manslaughter in connection with a devastating crash in which a Tesla plowed into a Katy-area home and killed a woman inside, a development that could reshape a lawsuit already filed over the deadly wreck. The charge escalated a case that has drawn attention to the electric carmaker's self-driving technology.
Investigators identified the driver as 44-year-old Michael Butler, who now faces the manslaughter charge. Authorities said they were still working through the details of the case, including when Butler would make his first court appearance.
According to investigators, Butler told them he was using Tesla's autopilot system at the time of the crash. He said the vehicle was driving itself when it veered off the road, an account that placed the car's automated features at the center of what happened.
The Tesla left the roadway and slammed into a brick home, a violent impact that proved fatal for a person inside. The woman who was killed was 76-year-old Martha Avila, who was in the residence when the car crashed through it and was later pronounced dead.
Even before the criminal charge, Avila's family had turned to the courts. Her relatives filed a lawsuit against Tesla, arguing that the technology was defective and that the car failed to stop, and they also named the driver in a separate claim over the crash.
The lawsuit contends that Tesla's automated systems bear responsibility for the wreck, framing the case around the performance of a self-driving feature rather than solely the actions of the person behind the wheel. That argument now runs alongside a criminal case built on the manslaughter charge against Butler.
The new charge introduces a complication for the civil side of the fight. Because the manslaughter count focuses on the driver's own conduct, it may affect, or even undercut, the family's effort to hold Tesla liable, tangling together questions of who or what was truly in control of the vehicle.
For now, Butler stands charged but not convicted, and the case is set to move forward on two fronts at once. The criminal prosecution will test the manslaughter allegation, while the civil suit presses claims against both the driver and the company whose technology the crash has put under scrutiny.