US regulators step up probe into Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system

The United States’ top automotive safety regulator is intensifying its investigation into Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software, with a particular focus on how the system performs in low-visibility conditions.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) announced on Thursday that it has escalated the probe it originally launched in October 2024 to an “engineering analysis,” which represents the highest level of scrutiny in its investigative process. This stage is often a precursor to a company being required to issue a recall.

This is one of two ongoing investigations by ODI into Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software. The agency is also examining more than 80 reported incidents where Tesla’s driver-assistance system allegedly violated basic traffic safety rules, including running red lights. These investigations come as Tesla continues efforts to launch a robotaxi service in Austin, Texas.

The specific investigation into low-visibility performance was initiated after four crashes were reported under such conditions, including one fatal incident involving a pedestrian. Over the past year and a half, the regulator has been exchanging information with Tesla and has identified additional cases where the system did not perform adequately in similar environments.

ODI stated that it has not yet received all the information it requested from Tesla. According to the agency, Tesla began developing a software update in June 2024 to address issues related to low-visibility conditions, even before the probe officially began. However, Tesla has not clarified whether this update has been deployed or which vehicles have received it.

The agency also raised concerns about potential underreporting of similar incidents, citing limitations in Tesla’s data collection and labelling practices.

“In the crashes that ODI has reviewed, the system did not detect common roadway conditions that impaired camera visibility and/or provide alerts when camera performance had deteriorated until immediately before the crash occurred,” the agency said. “Review of Tesla’s responses revealed additional crashes that occurred in similar environments and where the system either did not detect a degraded state, and/or it did not present the driver with an alert with adequate time for the driver to react. In each of these crashes, FSD also lost track of or never detected a lead vehicle in its path.”