Sen.Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is calling for Tesla to be held accountable for its role in a fatal crash last week in Texas in which police say a driver was using his Model 3’s assisted driving system before it slammed into a brick house, killing 76-year-old Martha Avila.Limited time: Save 25% on NBC News subscriptionGet exclusive reporting, live Q&As and ad-free reading.“Tesla must be held accountable and [the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration] should move much more quickly and effectively to investigate and hold it accountable,” Blumenthal said in an exclusive interview with NBC News.The crash in the Houston suburb of Katy gained immense attention after video from the incident showed the car careening into the side of the home.
It has so far resulted in two federal investigations and renewed scrutiny of Tesla’s driver assistance technology.Tesla CEO Elon Musk personally responded to a headline shared on X about the incident, writing, “this makes no sense.FSD drives slowly through neighborhood streets and this was a high speed crash,” referring to Tesla’s “Full-Self Driving” technology that enables some of its assisted driving capabilities.
Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s vice president of AI, also posted on X, claiming that the driver overrode the self-driving mode.“The driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100%,” he wrote.Tesla and Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Neither Musk, Elluswamy nor the driver has posted car data from the crash that could corroborate their claims.“Elon Musk saying that, quote, ‘this makes no sense,’ is simply an effort to evade responsibility,” Blumenthal said.The senator’s call for an investigation and accountability is part of a yearslong push by Blumenthal and other watchdogs for more oversight of Tesla’s advanced assisted driving systems, which have been the subject of nearly 50 NHTSA special investigations, accord...