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American vehicle safety authorities have commenced an examination into Tesla vehicles equipped with the full self-driving technology due to traffic-safety violations after numerous collisions.

Regulatory Body Identifies Traffic Law Violations

The NHTSA announced that the electric carmaker's self-driving assistance system, which demands motorists to stay alert and take control when necessary, had “induced car behavior that breached road safety regulations”.

This early investigation by the NHTSA represents the first step before possibly seeking a recall of the cars if the authority concludes they present a danger to public safety.

Concerning Incident Reports

The regulatory body reported it had received accounts of nearly 3 million Tesla cars driving through red lights and traveling against the wrong direction during lane switching while operating the system.

NHTSA confirmed it has six documented cases in which a Tesla vehicle, using FSD activated, “came to an junction with a red light, continued to travel into the crossroads despite the red signal and was subsequently part of a crash with other cars in the intersection”.

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

Additional Safety Concerns

The NHTSA announced it has identified 18 reports and one news account claiming that Tesla vehicles, operating at an intersection with FSD active, “failed to remain stopped for the duration of a red traffic signal, failed to stop fully, or did not properly recognize and display the proper light status in the car's display”.

Some complainants also claimed that FSD “failed to give 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 Autopilot system, has been under investigation by NHTSA for twelve months.

In October 2024, the authority started an investigation into over two million Tesla vehicles equipped with FSD after four documented crashes in situations of poor visibility, such as bright sunlight, mist or dust clouds. One of these collisions, in last year, was deadly.

Company's Official Stance

Tesla's website states 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 improve over time, the currently enabled functions do not make the car self-driving.”

Self-driving vehicle technology continue to face increased scrutiny from regulatory bodies as the systems develop and real-world testing reveals possible issues with existing deployments.