Tesla hit with probe after crashes involving a self-driving feature that
Musk has boasted about
[October 10, 2025] By
BERNARD CONDON and MATT OTT
NEW YORK (AP) — Federal regulators have opened yet another investigation
into Tesla's self-driving feature after dozens of incidents in which the
cars ran red lights or drove on the wrong side of the road, sometimes
crashing into other vehicles and causing injuries.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a filing that
it is looking into 58 incidents in which Teslas reportedly violated
traffic safety laws while using the company's so-called Full
Self-Driving mode, leading to more than a dozen crashes and fires and
nearly two dozen injuries. The new probe adds to several other open
investigations into Tesla technology that could upend Elon Musk's plans
to turn millions of his cars already on the road into completely
driverless vehicles with a over-the-air update to their software.
“The ultimate question is, ‘Does the software work?’” asked Seth
Goldstein, a Morningstar analyst with a “sell” rating on the stock.
Added money manager Ross Gerber, “The world has become a giant testing
ground for Elon’s concept of full self-driving, and it's not working,”
The probe comes as Musk, whose fortune as the world's richest man
derives partly from Tesla's levitating stock, has promised to roll out
hundreds of thousands of driverless taxis in cities around the U.S. by
the end of next year.
The new investigation covers 2.9 million vehicles, essentially all
Teslas equipped with full self-driving technology, or FSD, a misnomer
criticized for lulling drivers into handing full control over to their
cars. Tesla has argued to regulators and in court cases that it has
repeatedly told drivers the system cannot drive the cars by itself and
whoever is behind the wheel must be ready to intervene at all times.
In the new probe, regulators reported that many of the Tesla drivers
involved accidents said the cars gave them no warning about the
unexpected behavior.
Tesla stock fell nearly 3% at one point Thursday but closed with a loss
of just 0.7%.
The agency behind the latest probe, NHTSA, opened an investigation last
year into driver-assistance features in 2.4 million Teslas after several
crashes in fog and other low-visibility conditions, including one in
which a pedestrian was killed. NHTSA also opened an investigation
earlier this year for a “summon” technology that allows drivers to tell
their cars to drive to their location to pick them up after reports of
several fender benders in parking lots.
Another investigation was launched by the agency in August looking into
why Tesla apparently has not been reporting crashes promptly as
required.
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The logo for the Tesla Supercharger station is seen in Buford, Ga,
April 22, 2021. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson, File)
 That same month, a Miami jury found
that Tesla was partly responsible for a deadly 2019 crash in Florida
involving its Autopilot driver assist technology — which is
different than full self-driving — and must pay the victims more
than $240 million in damages. Tesla said it would appeal the
decision.
Money manager Gerber, a long-time Tesla investor who says he once
was a big believer in the company's driver assistance feature, says
the company should stop calling it full self-driving and admit the
vision-only system using cameras on its cars needs to be
supplemented with radar sensors and other hardware. Otherwise,
regulators should force it to do that.
“They have to take responsibility for the fact that the software
doesn't work right and either adjust the hardware accordingly — and
Elon can just deal with his ego issues — or somebody is gonna have
to come in and say, ‘Hey, you keep causing accidents with this stuff
and maybe you should just put it on test tracks until it works,’” he
said.
The FSD system under investigation is what is called Level 2
driver-assistance software that requires drivers to pay full
attention to the road. A new version of FSD was introduced earlier
this week. The company is also testing a vastly upgraded version
that does not require driver intervention, something that Musk has
been promising to roll out for years.
Tesla is under pressure to show success with FSD because the main
part of its business — selling cars — is struggling.
Customers who don't like Musk's support of President Donald Trump
and far-right candidates in Europe have boycotted the company,
sinking sales. Meanwhile, rival EV makers, including China's BYD,
are stealing market share with cheaper, high-quality offerings.
In response, Musk on Tuesday announced Tesla would be s elling two
new, stripped down and cheaper versions of models already on the
road, including its best-selling Model Y. But investors, hoping for
lower prices or a completely new offering, were unimpressed, pushing
the stock down 4.5%.
—-
Ott reported from Washington.
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