2.6M Tesla vehicles under investigation due to Actually Smart Summon feature; here's why
Federal regulators have opened a probe into roughly 2.6 million Tesla vehicles after a remote summoning feature reportedly led to crashes.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced the probe on Tuesday, stating it received one complaint alleging a crash due to the Actually Smart Summon feature and is investigating reports of three additional crashes.
What is Actually Smart Summon?
The “Actually Smart Summon” feature launched in September and enables drivers to remotely summon or move their vehicles to another location via a button on a mobile phone app. Tesla previously had a feature, called Smart Summon, that allowed drivers to move their cars into or out of a parking spot. According to the notice, the Office of Defects Investigation has received 12 complaints related to the Smart Summon feature.
The four crashes, according to the notice about the investigation, relate to the Tesla vehicles failing to detect posts or parked vehicles, resulting in crashes when the Actually Smart Summon feature is on.
The notice read that the office knows of several crash allegations — though Tesla has not reported any crashes through the Standing General Order requiring reporting of crashes on publicly accessible roads — involving Smart Summon and Actually Smart Summon in which drivers had little to no reaction time to avoid a crash with the available line of site or releasing the button to stop the vehicle’s movement.
What is the NHTSA investigating?
NHTSA is opening a preliminary evaluation into the Actually Smart Summon feature and will then decide whether to update the probe to an engineering analysis before seeking to require a recall. NHTSA will look into the vehicles’ operations and field performance, top speed attained with the Actually Smart Summon feature engaged and line of site requirements as well as stopping distance requirements.
This probe covers 2016-2025 Model S and X vehicles, 2017-2025 Model 3 and 2020-2025 Model Y with the Full Self-Driving driver assistance system.
Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.
Michael Brooks, executive director at the Center for Auto Safety, told the American-Statesman that Tesla’s autonomous driving system is a “vision-only system,” meaning it is camera-based and doesn’t use other sensors like other automakers are using to sense hazards.
“Almost invariably, you see cameras unable to cope with nighttime conditions in really lit areas and also, there's some problems in weather. Being able to cope with nighttime problems is critical to safe driving,” Brooks said. “The camera-only approach without some other sensor to check what inputs the camera is getting to make sure that at nighttime or in bad weather that the cameras are getting it right, there needs to be some sort of redundancy there.”
Brooks said all the current autonomous driving features on Tesla vehicles — summoning, autopilot and more — require human intervention and active participation, something he is concerned many drivers are not doing when using these features.
“People need to be aware that they are fully responsible for anything that occurs while they’re using (the summon feature),” Brooks said. “If you’re holding a button down on your phone to make your vehicle move and that vehicle then runs over a child in a grocery store parking lot, you are ultimately going to be held responsible. That’s not an autonomous vehicle. Tesla is not going to step in and save you from liability.”
How many NHTSA investigations into Tesla vehicles are there?
This is not the first time NHTSA has opened investigations into Tesla vehicles.
Tesla recalled more than two million U.S. vehicles in December 2023 to install safeguards for its Autopilot advanced driver-assistance system. NHTSA opened a probe in April to see if the recall was adequate to address the concerns that drivers are not paying attention.
In October, NHTSA opened an investigation into 2.4 million Tesla vehicles equipped with Full Self-Driving software following four reported crashes. One of these incidents involved a pedestrian who was struck and killed by a 2021 Tesla Model Y in Rimrock, Arizona, in November 2023. The investigation is still ongoing.
A week prior to that probe announcement, Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled Tesla’s two-seater, two-door "Cybercab" robotaxi with no steering wheel or pedals, using solely cameras and artificial intelligence to navigate roads. Musk at the time said he hoped to get approval for the vehicles in Texas, possibly in California, this year with hopes to reach volume production for the robotaxis in 2026. NHTSA would need to approve the vehicles for use on publicly accessible roads.
“Frankly, the Summon, the autopilot, full self-driving, all of those bells and whistles that Tesla has sold as somewhat all promise — all of them have to be supervised by humans which is a completely different animal than a true Robotaxi where there's no human supervision whatsoever,” Brooks said.
Brooks said the Center for Auto Safety does not anticipate Musk being able to launch his robotaxi this year, saying other self-driving robotaxi makers like Waymo are way ahead of Tesla’s technology and have additional sensors to support the vehicles.
What has Elon Musk said?
Musk has complained on various occasions that U.S. regulations impede the development of self-driving and fully autonomous vehicles.
Musk played an active role in President-elect Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, donating an estimated $250 million to his campaign. Since then, the tech billionaire and sometime-Austin resident has frequently stayed at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, sat-in on meetings with foreign heads of state and vetted cabinet nominees.
Trump announced following his election that he would create a new Department of Government Efficiency, placing Musk at the helm alongside Vivek Ramaswamy to oversee government spending and regulations.
In 2024, Tesla sales declined 1.1%, the first dip in over a decade for the automaker headquartered in Austin.
Brooks said NHTSA investigations decrease during some Republican administrations, and he expects the same under Trump. He said there’s an ongoing question whether or not federal regulators will continue pursuing the Tesla investigations “with the same fervor” as under the current Biden Administration.
“Once the administration change happens later this month, is NHTSA going to really pursue these investigations to an appropriate conclusion or whether there's going to be political influence to prevent the investigations from digging too much into that,” Brooks said.