— The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is looking into traffic violations that occur when Tesla vehicles are in "Full Self-Driving" (FSD) mode.
Safety regulators want to learn how Tesla FSD operates in traffic and any potential violations while FSD is activated. This includes when a vehicle doesn't stop at an intersection even when a red traffic signal is activated.
In addition, NHTSA is looking at how the Tesla FSD technology makes the vehicle change lanes into oncoming traffic.
The Tesla FSD traffic violation investigation includes nearly 2.9 million vehicles equipped with FSD (Supervised) or FSD (Beta).
Tesla warns customers FSD is only partial automation and still requires a driver completely engaged in the task of driving. This is a subject that has caused Tesla problems, namely advertising something as "Full Self-Driving," then adding "Supervised" or "Beta" to the phrase.
According to Tesla, FSD is a "Level 2 partial automation system requiring a fully attentive driver who is engaged in the driving task at all times."
According to NHTSA:
"The driver remains fully responsible at all times for driving the vehicle, including complying with applicable traffic laws. ODI’s investigation will therefore focus, in particular, on whether certain driving inputs within the control authority of FSD forestall the driver’s supervision when they are unexpectedly performed."
The government is aware of multiple incidents where FSD "induced" the vehicles to violate traffic laws.
Regarding Tesla FSD sending vehicles through red traffic lights at intersections, NHTSA says six crashes have been reported, with four of those crashes causing one or more injuries.
Safety regulators have already found evidence that one specific intersection in Joppa, Maryland really seemed to give FSD a problem. NHTSA discovered multiple FSD traffic violations and incidents occurred at this one intersection, some repeatedly.
Tesla has already made changes to FSD just for this one intersection in Joppa.
There have also been 18 complaints and two media reports alleging vehicles with FSD engaged "entered opposing lanes of travel during or following a turn, crossed double-yellow lane markings while proceeding straight, or attempted to turn onto a road in the wrong direction despite the presence of wrong-way road signs."
The investigation will also attempt to determine why Tesla FSD traffic violations included vehicles traveling through intersections in turn-only lanes, or the vehicles made turns at intersections when they shouldn't have according to the lane markings and traffic signals.
CarComplaints.com will update our website with results of the Tesla FSD traffic violation investigation.