Senators demand full Tesla FSD probe after fatal Model 3 crash

Two senators are pressing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to widen its Tesla Full Self-Driving probe after a Model 3 crashed through a home in Katy, Texas, and killed 76-year-old Martha Avila. The push adds fresh political pressure to a company whose driver-assistance systems have faced years of federal scrutiny and criticism over whether the branding outpaces the safeguards.

Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Edward J. Markey sent a letter on June 16 to NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison demanding that the agency properly and fully investigate Tesla’s Full Self-Driving technology for safety risks. Their latest intervention came days before the Katy crash, which unfolded Friday night, June 20, when a Tesla Model 3 struck Avila’s home in the Houston suburb and she was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office identified the driver as Michael Butler and said the vehicle was traveling east when it hit the house. Attorneys for Avila’s family later said in a lawsuit that the Tesla was in Autopilot mode and speeding when it crashed through the brick home. That allegation has renewed attention on how Tesla presents driver-assistance features that remain dependent on a fully attentive human driver.

NHTSA describes Tesla’s Full Self-Driving as an SAE Level 2 system, meaning the driver must stay fully engaged at all times. Federal regulators have already opened several Tesla probes. On March 18, NHTSA opened Engineering Analysis EA26002 into FSD collisions in reduced roadway visibility conditions, covering an estimated 3,203,754 Tesla vehicles equipped with the system. That investigation cited nine incidents, including two injury incidents and no fatalities in that dataset.

The agency had also opened Preliminary Evaluation PE25012 on October 7, 2025, into FSD traffic-safety violations such as running red lights and driving the wrong way. That review cited 58 total reports, including 14 crashes and 23 injuries. Before that, NHTSA’s 2024 PE24031 investigation into reduced-visibility crashes cited four crash reports, including one fatal pedestrian strike.

Blumenthal and Markey have been pressing federal regulators to tighten oversight of Tesla since at least 2018, and they intensified that pressure after a fatal Tesla crash in Texas in 2021. Consumer Reports has also criticized Tesla’s “Autopilot” naming as potentially misleading to drivers, a concern that has returned with the Katy crash and the senators’ demand for a fuller federal probe.