Elon Musk-run Tesla is off the hook for at least one federal investigation of its self-driving cars after a 15-month probe of a feature that allows owners to remotely drive their cars short distances was closed, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Monday.
The feds launched an investigation last year after a number of Telsas were involved in crashes using the “Actually Smart Summon” feature, which allows Tesla owners to move their cars around parking lots, for example, by using an app.
Most of the crashes involved parking gates, other parked vehicles or short posts that are used to control the flow of traffic, according to authorities.
The feds found that none of the accidents caused injuries or death and that out of the “millions of Summon sessions,” only a “fraction” caused “minor property damage.”
Some of the crashes were the result of the camera’s sight views being blocked by snow and the Tesla owner not “commanding the vehicle” to stop.
In those cases, the cars careened into parked cars.
The automaker has since updated its software to address this problem, the NHTSA said.
Its Office of Defects concluded that “due to low incident severity,” the investigation is closed.
Last month, the NHTSA stepped up its investigation of Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” technology as it continues to investigate nine crashes, including a fatality. The agency is also evaluating six recent potentially related incidents, it said in March.
The probe dates back to 2024, after a Tesla in Full Self-Driving mode fatally hit a 28 year-old motorcyclist in Seattle. The driver of the Tesla was charged with vehicular manslaughter.
The “FSD” technology, which requires a driver to be present, failed to detect poor driving conditions and alert drivers in time to react, the administration said.
The software failed to detect “common roadway conditions that impaired camera visibility” until it was too late for the driver to respond, according to the feds.
The Post has sought comment from Tesla.
