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American vehicle safety authorities have opened an probe into Tesla cars equipped with the autonomous driving system due to traffic-safety violations after multiple accidents.

Regulatory Body Identifies Traffic Law Violations

The federal safety agency declared that the electric carmaker's autonomous driving feature, which requires motorists to stay alert and intervene if needed, had “induced vehicle behaviour that breached traffic safety laws”.

This preliminary evaluation by the NHTSA marks the first step before potentially seeking a recall of the vehicles if the agency concludes they pose a risk to public safety.

Alarming Case Findings

The regulatory body reported it had documented reports of 2.88 million Tesla cars running red traffic lights and moving against the incorrect way during lane switching while using the technology.

NHTSA confirmed it has six documented cases in which a Tesla car, using FSD activated, “approached an junction with a red light, continued to drive into the intersection against the red light and was subsequently involved in a collision with other motor vehicles in the intersection”.

The authority reported that four crashes had caused one or more injuries.

Additional Issues Identified

The NHTSA announced it has identified 18 complaints and one media report alleging that Tesla cars, driving through an intersection with FSD engaged, did not stay stopped for the entire time of a red light, did not come to complete stop, or failed to accurately detect and display the correct traffic signal state in the vehicle interface”.

Some complainants also stated that FSD “failed to give warnings of the system's planned behaviour as the vehicle was coming to a red light”.

Continuing Regulatory Scrutiny

The full self-driving system, which is more sophisticated than its Autopilot system, has been being examined by NHTSA for a year.

In late 2024, the authority started an inquiry into 2.4 million Tesla cars using FSD after four reported collisions in situations of reduced visibility, such as sun glare, fog or dust clouds. One of these collisions, in 2023, was fatal.

Company's Official Stance

The company's official position indicates that FSD is “designed for operation by a completely alert motorist, who has their hands on the wheel and is ready to take over at any time. While these features are engineered to improve over time, the currently enabled functions do not render the vehicle self-driving.”

Automated car systems continue to face increased scrutiny from safety agencies as the technology advances and real-world testing reveals possible issues with existing deployments.