{"id":346544,"date":"2026-06-23T03:43:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T03:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/346544\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T03:43:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T03:43:17","slug":"us-watchdog-opens-probe-after-tesla-crashes-into-texas-home-killing-woman-automotive-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/346544\/","title":{"rendered":"US watchdog opens probe after Tesla crashes into Texas home, killing woman | Automotive Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Road safety regulator investigates crash involving a Model 3 that had been reportedly operating in self-driving mode.<\/p>\n

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Published On 23 Jun 202623 Jun 2026<\/p>\n

The US road safety watchdog has launched an investigation after a Tesla vehicle reportedly operating in self-driving mode crashed into a house in Texas, killing a 76-year-old woman inside.<\/p>\n

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Monday that it had opened a probe into the fatal incident on June 19, in which a Tesla Model 3 slammed into a home near Houston.<\/p>\n

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\u201cNHTSA is launching a Special Crash Investigation into this crash,\u201d a spokesperson for the regulator said in a brief statement provided to Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

Tesla, the biggest electric vehicle maker in the US, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Harris County Texas Sheriff\u2019s Office said last week that the driver told officers he had been using the Model 3\u2019s automated driving assistance system when his vehicle left the road and struck the residence.<\/p>\n

Police said the driver showed no signs of intoxication and cooperated with investigators following the crash.<\/p>\n

In a post on X, Tesla CEO Elon Musk disputed reports that the vehicle had been in self-driving mode at the time of the accident.<\/p>\n

\u201cFSD drives slowly through neighborhood streets and this was a high speed crash!\u201d Musk said, referring to Tesla\u2019s Full Self-Driving mode.<\/p>\n

Tesla\u2019s vice president of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, also denied that the company\u2019s technology was to blame, writing on X that the driver had manually overridden the system by pressing down on the accelerator.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey reached a speed of 73 mph [117km\/h] during the crash, and had the accelerator pressed even after the crash,\u201d Elluswamy said.<\/p>\n

Elluswamy did not provide a source for his characterisation of the incident.<\/p>\n

\"ElonElon Musk attends the Saudi Investment Forum at the Kennedy Center, in Washington, DC, the US, on November 19, 2025 [Evan Vucci\/AP]<\/p>\n

Musk, the world\u2019s richest man and first trillionaire, has heavily pushed self-driving technology as a core part of Tesla\u2019s long-term strategy, predicting that 90 percent of all driving in the US will be autonomous within a decade.<\/p>\n

While Tesla markets its Full Self-Driving mode as a key selling point of its vehicles, its current technology\u00a0is not strictly autonomous, requiring human supervision at all times.<\/p>\n

Tesla\u2019s self-driving system\u00a0has come under growing regulatory scrutiny in recent years amid reports of fatal crashes involving the technology.<\/p>\n

In October, the NHTSA opened an investigation to determine the \u201cscope, frequency, and potential safety consequences\u201d of the technology following 58 reported incidents of Tesla vehicles breaking red lights or veering into oncoming traffic.<\/p>\n

In March, the regulator escalated a probe into the performance of self-driving mode in conditions where visibility is poor due to fog, sun glare or other obstructions.<\/p>\n

Tesla has denied that its self-driving technology poses hazards to drivers and pedestrians, arguing that it is up to 10 times safer than human drivers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Road safety regulator investigates crash involving a Model 3 that had been reportedly operating in self-driving mode. Published…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3714,123607,918,3621,27,29,28,464,7454],"class_list":["post-346544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-automotive-industry","tag-business-and-economy","tag-economy","tag-technology","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}