Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Faces Ongoing NHTSA Probe After Settlement

Tesla settled a lawsuit tied to a 2023 fatal pedestrian crash involving its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system. The settlement terms were not disclosed, and the victim’s family expressed relief, but the case does not end the federal safety investigation.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is conducting two separate probes. A preliminary evaluation opened on Oct. 7, 2025 covers roughly 2.9 million Tesla vehicles after reports of red‑light violations, wrong‑way driving and 58 incidents, including 14 crashes or fires. A second evaluation opened on Oct. 17, 2024 covers about 2.4 million vehicles following four crashes in low‑visibility conditions—sun glare, fog or dust—one of which was a fatal pedestrian strike. In March 2026 NHTSA escalated the investigation to an engineering analysis, the final step before a possible recall if the system cannot reliably detect hazards.

Tesla has responded by updating camera hardware on older models and continues to expand supervised and unsupervised robotaxi services in U.S. cities such as Austin, Dallas and Houston, as well as seeking approval abroad. The regulatory scrutiny remains a significant risk to Tesla’s AI and robotics strategy.