The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has officially closed its investigation into Tesla’s Smart Summon and Actually Smart Summon (ASS) features. After a 15-month evaluation, federal regulators determined that while incidents occurred, the overall safety risk remained low enough to terminate the probe without a formal recall.
1. Investigation Scope and Incident Data
The investigation was launched by the Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) on January 6, 2025. It followed reports of collisions involving the "Actually Smart Summon" feature, which allows owners to remotely move their cars using a smartphone app.
The probe covered an estimated 2,585,000 vehicles, spanning a decade of production:
Model S & Model X: 2016–2025
Model 3: 2017–2025
Model Y: 2020–2025 (equipped with FSD software)
According to reports from USA Today, the ODI confirmed 159 incidents related to the feature. Out of these, 97 involved collisions. However, the NHTSA noted that almost all resulted in minor property damage only. There were no reports of injuries, fatalities, or major damage requiring airbag deployment.
Metric |
Details |
|---|---|
Total Vehicles Involved |
~2,585,000 |
Confirmed Incidents |
159 |
Reported Collisions |
97 |
Injury/Fatality Rate |
0% |
Incident Frequency |
Less than 1% of total Summon operations |
2. Common Failure Modes and Technical Root Causes
The NHTSA identified specific patterns in the collisions. Most accidents happen at low speeds in parking lots. The most frequent targets were parking gates, adjacent vehicles, and short bollards.
Technically, the investigation highlighted two primary issues:
Camera Obstruction: At least two crashes were caused by snow covering the cameras. The system failed to detect that its "eyes" were blocked and subsequently hit parked cars.
Detection Failures: In other cases, the vehicle failed to yield to parking garage gate arms, leading to low-impact strikes.
As reported by Electrek, these incidents were largely attributed to the complex nature of navigating tight, high-clutter environments.
3. Tesla’s Proactive Software Solutions
Tesla did not wait for a formal government mandate to fix these issues. During the 15-month investigation, the company rolled out six over-the-air (OTA) updates to improve system performance:
January 2025: Two updates improved the system's ability to detect camera obstructions.
Late January 2025: Updates focused on reducing false positives caused by snow or condensation.
February 2025: Tesla deployed a high-fidelity occupancy network. This significantly increased the precision of object reconstruction to better handle moving gate arms.
November 2025: A sixth update added a secondary independent neural network for object detection to provide extra redundancy.
These updates have been pushed to all affected vehicles currently on the road and integrated into new production units.
4. Legal Implications and Ongoing Probes
On April 3, 2026, the NHTSA officially closed the evaluation. The agency cited the low frequency and low severity of the incidents as the reason for the closure.
However, the NHTSA issued a stern warning: closing this case does not mean the system is defect-free. The agency reserves the right to take future action if new safety risks emerge. For now, this means Tesla can continue selling cars with these features without the immediate threat of a forced disablement or recall.
While Smart Summon is in the clear, Tesla still faces five ongoing federal investigations, including:
FSD Visibility: A probe into Full Self-Driving performance in low-visibility conditions (fog, sun glare), which has been upgraded to an "Engineering Analysis."
Emergency Handles: Investigations into the performance of manual door releases on Model 3 and Model Y.
Reporting Delays: An audit into how quickly Tesla reports automated system crashes to the government.
By resolving the Smart Summon probe, Tesla clears one hurdle, but the regulatory spotlight remains firmly on its autonomous driving ambitions.