NTSB: Tesla driver pressed accelerator to 100% before fatal crash

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) confirmed in preliminary findings on Wednesday that the driver in a fatal Texas crash pressed the accelerator pedal to 100 percent. The crash resulted in the death of a grandmother.

The NTSB's preliminary report does not yet determine the cause of the crash but corroborates earlier statements from Tesla and CEO Elon Musk. The driver, Michael Butler, had previously told police that the vehicle's autopilot feature was engaged at the time of the incident.

Elon Musk had disputed this claim on X, stating that Butler must have manually overridden the system, noting, "FSD drives slowly through neighborhood streets, and this was a high-speed crash!". Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla's VP of AI Software, had previously said internal data showed the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator to its maximum.

The NTSB probe found that while FSD (Supervised) was engaged, electronic data indicated the driver manually overrode it by fully engaging the accelerator. The findings are based on the vehicle's event data recorder.