Elon Musk denies Tesla’s Autopilot caused crash that killed grandmother

Key Points:

• The family of Martha Avila, who was killed when a Tesla Model 3 crashed into their Texas home, filed a lawsuit against Tesla alleging defects in the car’s Full Self Driving (FSD) system and seeking over $1 million in damages.
• The lawsuit claims two possible causes: Sudden Unintended Acceleration (SUA) due to voltage surges misinterpreting accelerator input, and failure of the FSD system to detect the home because Tesla removed critical obstacle-detection hardware during a chip shortage.
• Tesla disputes responsibility, with CEO Elon Musk and VP Ashok Elluswamy attributing the crash to the driver manually accelerating to high speed rather than a malfunction of the FSD system.
• The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating the crash, and the family has demanded Tesla preserve all vehicle data and components for evidence, citing Tesla’s history of withholding data after crashes.
• The family expressed gratitude to first responders who aided after the crash, while expressing uncertainty about whether the crash was caused by driver error or Tesla’s technology.