US watchdog opens probe after Tesla crashes into Texas home, killing woman

Road safety regulator investigates crash involving a Model 3 that had been reportedly operating in self-driving mode.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.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.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Egypt denied flight to Seattle ahead of final World Cup group matchlist 2 of 4Belgium’s Doku welcomes son during World Cup amid commentator controversylist 3 of 4Video shows deadly shooting in Montreal, Canadalist 4 of 4Gaza surfers seek solace from war in the seaend of list“NHTSA is launching a Special Crash Investigation into this crash,” a spokesperson for the regulator said in a brief statement provided to Al Jazeera.Tesla, the biggest electric vehicle maker in the US, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Texas-sheriffs-office" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="150892" data-entity-type="organization">Harris County Texas Sheriff’s Office said last week that the driver told officers he had been using the Model 3’s automated driving assistance system when his vehicle left the road and struck the residence.Police said the driver showed no signs of intoxication and cooperated with investigators following the crash.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.“FSD drives slowly through neighborhood streets and this was a high speed crash!” Musk said, referring to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving mode.Tesla’s vice president of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, also denied that the company’s technology was to blame, writing on X that the driver had manually overridden the system by pressing down on the accelerator.“They reached a speed of 73 mph [117km/h] during the crash, and had the accelerator pressed even after the crash,” Elluswamy said.