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American vehicle safety authorities have opened an probe into Tesla vehicles equipped with the full self-driving technology due to traffic-safety violations after multiple accidents.

Regulatory Body Identifies Traffic Law Violations

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration stated that the electric carmaker's self-driving assistance system, which requires drivers to stay alert and take control when necessary, had “induced car behavior that breached road safety regulations”.

This preliminary evaluation by the NHTSA marks the first step before potentially requesting a recall of the cars if the agency concludes they present a danger to public safety.

Concerning Incident Reports

The agency stated it had documented accounts of 2.88 million Tesla vehicles driving through red lights and moving in the wrong way during lane changes while operating the system.

NHTSA confirmed it has six reports in which a Tesla vehicle, using full self-driving engaged, “approached an intersection with a red light, proceeded to travel into the intersection against the red signal and was subsequently part of a crash with other cars in the intersection”.

The agency noted that four crashes had resulted in one or more injuries.

Additional Safety Concerns

The NHTSA announced it has identified 18 complaints and one media report alleging that Tesla vehicles, operating at an junction with FSD active, did not stay stationary for the entire time of a red traffic signal, failed to stop fully, or failed to accurately detect and display the proper traffic signal state in the car's display”.

Some complainants also claimed that FSD “did not provide warnings of the technology's planned actions as the vehicle was coming to a red light”.

Ongoing Regulatory Scrutiny

The full self-driving system, which is more advanced than its basic autopilot feature, has been being examined by NHTSA for twelve months.

In late 2024, the agency began an investigation into 2.4 million Tesla cars using FSD after four reported collisions in conditions of reduced visibility, such as sun glare, mist or dust clouds. One of these collisions, in last year, was deadly.

Company's Official Stance

The company's official position indicates that FSD is “designed for operation by a fully attentive driver, who has their hands on the wheel and is ready to take over at any moment. While these capabilities are engineered to become more capable, the currently enabled features do not make the vehicle autonomous.”

Automated vehicle technology continue to face growing examination from regulatory bodies as the systems develop and real-world testing reveals possible issues with existing deployments.