Short answer: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating whether Tesla vehicles operating with Full Self-Driving (FSD) engaged have made potentially unlawful or unsafe maneuvers, including running red lights, entering opposing lanes, traveling the wrong way, and selecting improper lanes. The investigation is still open. As of August 18, 2026, there is no verified final defect finding, recall order, or requirement that Tesla deactivate FSD as a result of this case.
FSD (Supervised) also remains a driver-assistance system, not autonomous driving. Tesla says drivers must stay attentive, monitor the road, and be ready to take over.
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What NHTSA is investigating
NHTSA opened Preliminary Evaluation PE25012 on October 7, 2025. The investigation concerns driving behavior while FSD, FSD (Supervised), FSD (Beta), or related systems such as Traffic Light and Stop Sign Control are engaged.
The agency is examining whether the system can correctly detect and respond to:
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- Traffic lights and their current state
- Traffic signs
- Lane markings and lane-use arrows
- Road direction and opposing traffic
NHTSA is also assessing whether FSD warns the driver accurately, conspicuously, and early enough for the driver to recognize an unexpected maneuver and intervene safely. That means the inquiry is not limited to whether a vehicle made a wrong movement. It also considers whether the human supervisor had a realistic opportunity to correct it.
What behaviors have been alleged?
Traffic-signal violations
The opening documents identify reports alleging that Tesla vehicles:
- Failed to stop completely at red lights
- Moved again before a red phase ended
- Entered intersections against red signals
- Displayed or interpreted the wrong signal state
- Failed to warn the driver before proceeding
The allegations are not a final finding that every reported vehicle committed a traffic violation or that FSD caused every related crash.
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Other allegations involve vehicles crossing double-yellow lines, entering an opposing lane during or after a turn, or attempting to turn onto a road in the wrong direction despite wrong-way signs.
Improper lane selection
NHTSA’s December 3, 2025 information-request letter also identifies reports involving vehicles traveling straight from turn-only lanes, turning from through-only lanes, or otherwise conflicting with lane arrows and intersection markings.
The scope may extend beyond ordinary intersections to comparable situations near opposing traffic and railroad crossings.
Investigation timeline and incident numbers
| Date or document | What it says |
|---|---|
| October 7, 2025 | NHTSA opened Preliminary Evaluation PE25012. |
| October 2025 opening resume | The estimated population within the investigation’s scope was 2,882,566 Tesla vehicles. The resume summarized 58 potentially relevant incidents, including 14 crashes or fires, 10 injury incidents, and 23 reported injuries. No fatalities were listed in that summary. |
| December 3, 2025 | NHTSA said it had identified 62 complaints, four media reports, and 14 potentially related reports submitted under its Standing General Order. The agency also sent Tesla a formal request for information. |
| March 18, 2026 | NHTSA opened a separate Engineering Analysis, EA26002, concerning FSD performance and degradation detection in reduced-visibility conditions. |
These figures should not be merged into one confirmed incident total. The 58 incidents came from the opening resume, while the later figures describe categories of information NHTSA had identified by December. Complaints, media reports, Standing General Order reports, crashes, injury incidents, and confirmed software failures are different things.
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The 2.88 million vehicles likewise represents the estimated population covered by the investigation—not the number of vehicles known to have run red lights, entered opposing lanes, or suffered a defect.
What the reported crashes do—and do not—prove
The opening resume described six Standing General Order crash reports involving Teslas that allegedly entered intersections against red lights and then crashed. Four reportedly involved one or more injuries.
Those reports are important evidence for a defect investigation, but a crash following an alleged violation does not automatically establish that the software caused the crash. Investigators must consider whether FSD was engaged at the relevant moment, whether the driver had taken over, what the roadway looked like, and whether another factor caused or contributed to the collision.
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Important questions include:
- What exactly did the vehicle do?
- Did it stop before moving through the intersection?
- Was FSD engaged continuously, or had the driver intervened?
- Could the driver see the roadway and the vehicle’s intended path?
- Were temporary markings, unusual signal geometry, construction, or conflicting signs involved?
- What vehicle hardware and software version was installed?
- Could the behavior be reproduced under similar conditions?
What “under investigation” means
A Preliminary Evaluation is an early formal stage of NHTSA’s defect-investigation process. The agency can request records and data, conduct testing, examine repeatability, escalate the matter to an Engineering Analysis, seek a negotiated remedy, request or order a recall, or close the investigation without requiring a recall.
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Opening PE25012 does not establish that a defect exists in every vehicle, that Tesla violated traffic laws, or that Tesla is legally liable for the reported incidents. The available documents reviewed for this article do not verify a final PE25012 determination or recall order.
NHTSA’s Standing General Order on crash reporting requires covered entities to report certain crashes involving automated-driving and Level 2 driver-assistance systems. The resulting information helps the agency identify possible safety trends and decide whether further investigation or enforcement is appropriate.
FSD is not autonomous driving
Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” name does not mean that the vehicle can drive without human supervision. Tesla’s own support material says FSD (Supervised) does not make the vehicle autonomous and does not replace the driver.
In practical terms, the driver remains responsible for monitoring the road and must be ready to take over immediately. A driver cannot treat the system as a chauffeur, look away from traffic, or assume that the visualization on the screen is correct.
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Tesla’s safety claims are measuring something different
Tesla’s Vehicle Safety Report says vehicles with FSD (Supervised) engaged experience seven times fewer major and minor collisions and five times fewer off-highway collisions under Tesla’s stated methodology.
Tesla says the report uses vehicle telemetry and rolling 12-month collision metrics, with updates each quarter. Those claims do not directly resolve the allegations in PE25012. An aggregate collision comparison is different from an investigation into rare, specific behaviors such as entering an intersection against a red light or choosing an opposing lane.
The results may also be influenced by factors such as:
- Which drivers choose to use FSD
- Road type and geography
- Weather and visibility
- Vehicle model and hardware
- Mileage and trip selection
- When drivers engage or disengage the system
Tesla’s figures and NHTSA’s incident counts therefore should not be treated as competing measurements of the same thing. A system could have a lower average collision rate while still exhibiting a serious defect in a narrow but dangerous scenario.
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The reduced-visibility investigation is separate
PE25012 and EA26002 should not be described as one investigation.
- PE25012: Alleged traffic-law and roadway-behavior problems while FSD is engaged, including red lights, wrong-way or opposing-lane travel, and improper lane use.
- EA26002: FSD performance and degradation detection in reduced-visibility situations such as fog, glare, or other conditions in which cameras may not adequately detect roadway hazards.
EA26002 matters because a driver-assistance system may need to recognize when its performance is impaired and alert the driver or reduce reliance on automation. But it involves a different investigative theory from PE25012. The opening document is available through a document-hosted copy, while TechCrunch reported on the engineering-analysis escalation.
What Tesla owners should do now
Owners do not need to panic, but they should use FSD conservatively:
- Treat FSD as driver assistance, not autonomous transportation.
- Keep your attention on the road and your hands ready to take over.
- Be especially alert at red lights, turn-only lanes, lane splits, railroad crossings, construction zones, unusual intersections, and roads with poor or conflicting markings.
- Take over immediately if the vehicle’s path, speed, lane choice, or signal interpretation appears wrong.
- Do not assume a screen visualization or system prompt is accurate merely because it is displayed.
- Never deliberately test a suspected failure around pedestrians or other road users.
If FSD makes a dangerous maneuver, preserve available dashcam footage and record the date, location, weather, software version, vehicle behavior, whether FSD was engaged, and when the driver intervened. Report the event to Tesla and, where appropriate, through NHTSA’s vehicle-safety complaint system.
Tesla says FSD requires an eligible vehicle, the applicable software, and active driver supervision. Its U.S. support page listed the subscription at $99 per month when checked in August 2026, but Tesla says pricing and availability may change. A subscription is a poor fit for anyone seeking autonomous transport or a way to avoid driving responsibility.
What happens next?
NHTSA’s next steps may include reviewing Tesla’s records and telemetry, analyzing software and hardware versions, testing vehicles, comparing incidents across road configurations, and examining whether warnings were timely and conspicuous. The agency could ultimately close PE25012, pursue additional analysis, seek a remedy, or require a recall. The current record does not establish which outcome will occur.
Bottom line
PE25012 represents serious federal scrutiny of specific FSD behaviors, not a final ruling that Tesla’s software has violated traffic laws in every reported case. The investigation covers alleged red-light movements, wrong-way or opposing-lane travel, improper lane use, and potentially inadequate driver warnings. FSD remains supervised Level 2 driver assistance, so drivers must monitor it continuously and take over whenever its behavior looks unsafe.
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