Federal auto regulators have escalated scrutiny of Tesla’s self-driving feature, pointing to a set of crashes in poor visibility that, according to the government, involved delayed alerts to drivers to take over. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a March 18 memo that it is examining nine crashes in which the self-driving software failed to quickly alert drivers to assume control, including during conditions such as fog. The agency said the problem related to whether the vehicles’ cameras were able to pick out road hazards quickly enough.
The memo indicates the probe could move to “engineering analysis,” a step the NHTSA described as more serious scrutiny than prior review stages. The investigation comes with the federal agency referencing an earlier regulatory path: the NHTSA said its current work builds on a probe begun in 2024 over poor visibility crashes. The outcome of that regulatory process could include enforcement action and, potentially, a recall of 3.2 million Tesla vehicles.
The NHTSA said the crashes under review involve the operation of Tesla’s self-driving system when the vehicle was not able to detect hazards quickly through its camera-based inputs. Unlike some other autonomous systems that use radar or lidar in addition to cameras, Tesla’s approach relies solely on cameras to identify problems on the road. Tesla has dismissed lidar as unnecessary, according to the Associated Press report.
The regulatory escalation also arrives as Tesla seeks to market self-driving technology more aggressively to investors and customers. AP reported that Musk is positioning the company’s future less around selling cars amid falling sales and more around making its self-driving software more widely used. Musk has said that the company will eventually turn millions of Tesla cars on the road into taxis that owners can rent out when they are not using them, and he has tied that vision to Tesla’s forthcoming robotaxi service.
In the same period, Musk said Tesla will roll out its robotaxi service with no one behind the wheel in several U.S. cities this year, AP reported. Tesla is also planning to begin production of its “no-wheel-no-pedal” Cybercab for sale to customers next month, according to the report.
Tesla’s stock fell 3.2% to $380.30, AP reported. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment, the report said.
Tesla had called its driver assistance software “Full Self-Driving,” a name AP said regulators and auto experts have described as misleading because drivers must always keep their eyes on the road and be ready to take over. The company has since changed the designation to “Full Self-Driving (Supervised).” AP reported that, among the nine crashes under review, Tesla told regulators that three would not have occurred with new over-the-air FSD upgrades.
The NHTSA probe is not the only federal scrutiny Tesla has faced related to its driver assistance features. AP reported that the company is also dealing with other investigations, including a probe concerning Tesla’s FSD-equipped cars running red lights and another into door handles that reportedly failed to work in crashes, trapping passengers inside.