Tesla faces a brand new investigation by the Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration, or NHTSA, regarding points with its “Full Self-Driving” programs, and whether or not they’re protected to make use of in fog, obtrusive solar or different “lowered roadway visibility circumstances.”

The probe follows an incident during which a Tesla driver who had been utilizing FSD, struck and killed a pedestrian, and different FSD-involved collisions throughout lowered roadway visibility circumstances.

Information posted to the NHTSA web site on Friday morning stated the aim of the brand new probe can be to evaluate:

“The power of FSD’s engineering controls to detect and reply appropriately to lowered roadway visibility circumstances; whether or not some other comparable FSD crashes have occurred in lowered roadway visibility circumstances and, in that case, the contributing circumstances for these crashes,” amongst different issues.

The company will even look into Tesla’s over-the-air, software program updates to its FSD programs, which at the moment are marketed as “Full Self-Driving (Supervised),” to grasp the “timing, objective, and capabilities of any such updates, in addition to Tesla’s evaluation of their security impression.”

The “preliminary analysis” by the NHTSA pertains to a automobile inhabitants of round 2.4 million Tesla EVs on U.S. roads together with: Mannequin S and X autos produced from 2016 to 2024, Mannequin 3 autos produced from 2017 to 2024, Mannequin Y autos produced from 2020 to 2024, and Cybertruck autos produced this yr and final, which give drivers the choice to make use of Tesla’s FSD.

FSD, which the corporate now refers to as a “partial driving automation system,” is Tesla’s paid, premium driver help choice. However Tesla has provided it to all drivers for a monthlong free trial within the U.S., beforehand.

The U.S. federal automobile security regulator tracks collisions involving using automakers’ superior driver help programs, like Tesla’s Autopilot or FSD. As of Oct. 1, 2024, the NHTSA had tracked 1,399 incidents during which Tesla’s driver help programs have been engaged inside 30 seconds of the collision, and 31 of these had resulted in fatalities.

Tesla didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

The corporate just lately held a advertising occasion during which CEO Elon Musk stated Tesla expects to have “unsupervised FSD” up and working in Texas and California subsequent yr within the firm’s Mannequin 3 and Mannequin Y electrical autos.

Musk has promised driverless autos for years. However Tesla has not but produced or proven a automobile that’s protected to make use of on public roads with no human on the wheel, able to steer or brake at any time.