The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it opened an investigation into nearly 2.9 million Tesla vehicles after reports of traffic safety violations related to the electric car maker’s fully autonomous driving system, according to a document posted on the government regulator’s website.
The investigation by the agency’s Office of Defect Investigation involves Tesla vehicles equipped with “FSD (Supervised)” and “FSD (Beta)” versions of the company’s self-driving systems. Both require “a driver fully attentive and engaged at all times in the driving task,” NHTSA said in a document filed as part of the investigation.
Reports of traffic violations include vehicles operating with FSD crossing red traffic lights and initiating lane changes into oncoming traffic.
NHTSA has received reports of 58 safety violations related to Tesla vehicles with FSD. These incidents include more than a dozen accidents and fires, as well as 23 injuries, according to the agency.
U.S. regulators have been investigating Tesla’s automated driving systems for more than three years because of dozens of accidents that have raised safety concerns, such as a 2024 Seattle-area Tesla crash involving fully autonomous driving that killed a motorcyclist.
Such problems have led lawmakers and safety regulators to question whether Tesla’s automated system and other similar systems will ever be able to operate safely on a large scale. In California, a new law that would hold driverless car makers responsible for traffic violations is expected to pass. take effect next year.
Tesla is also under investigation by the NHTSA for “summoning” technology that allows drivers to tell their car to go to their location to pick them up, a feature that has reportedly led to parking lot skirmishes. A survey of driver assistance features in 2.4 million Tesla was opened last year after several crashes in fog and other low visibility conditions, including one in which a pedestrian was killed.
Another investigation was launched by NHTSA in August to determine why Tesla allegedly failed to promptly report the accidents to the agency, as its rules require.
CEO Elon Musk is under pressure to show that the latest advances in driver-assistance features haven’t solved these problems. He recently promised to put hundreds of thousands of self-driving Tesla cars and Tesla robo-taxis on the roads by the end of next year.
Tesla shares fell 1.4% on Thursday. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
contributed to this report.