Safety

Tesla FSD Under Federal Investigation After 58 Reported Incidents

Published OCT 10 2025

Story

Above: Tesla Model Y, equipped with FSD system. Image credit: Mark Leong/The Washington Post/Getty Images

The Facts

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened a federal investigation into Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) system covering approximately 2.88 million vehicles after receiving over 50 reports of traffic safety violations and crashes.
The EV Report
Engadget
Federal regulators documented 58 incident reports involving FSD-equipped vehicles, including 14 crashes and 23 injuries, with violations ranging from running red lights to driving against proper traffic flow.
Drive Tesla Canada
Qatar Tribune
The investigation identified six specific cases where Tesla vehicles using FSD entered intersections against red traffic signals and collided with other vehicles, resulting in four crashes with reported injuries.
Autobody News
TechCrunch
Multiple incidents occurred at a single intersection in Joppa, Maryland, prompting collaboration between NHTSA and local authorities, with Tesla reportedly taking corrective action at that specific location.
TechCrunch
The EV Report
The probe will assess FSD's ability to detect traffic signals and lane markings, the timing of driver warnings, and whether drivers have adequate time to intervene when the system exhibits unexpected behavior.
New York Post
CNBC
This preliminary evaluation represents the first formal step in NHTSA's defect analysis process and could potentially lead to a recall if regulators determine the vehicles pose an unreasonable safety risk. Tesla has not yet commented on the investigation.
TechCrunch
Drive Tesla

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The Spin

Techno-skeptic narrative

As federal regulators investigate, Tesla’s Full Self-Driving demonstrates ongoing volatile, error-prone behavior. Users report FSD abruptly veering into oncoming traffic, illegal turns ignoring no-right-turn signs, and jerky parking in parking lots. Even on straight rural roads, FSD v13.2.2 has required emergency human intervention. While Supervised FSD shows smoother performance than early beta, these incidents underline that the system is far from ready for fully autonomous deployment. The investigation is warranted.

motortrend

The Driven

Techno-optimist narrative

Despite the NHTSA investigation, Tesla’s Full Self-Driving continues to demonstrate impressive real-world performance. Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas reported FSD safely handled over 99% of a 1,400-mile trip, while Chinese users logged months of error-free, human-like driving, far outperforming rivals like Huawei’s system. Even with scrutiny, FSD is showing it can manage complex road conditions reliably, suggesting the system is already a practical step toward safe, widespread autonomous driving.