By Aaron Greggs, Washington Post
Federal transportation regulators are investigating about 2.6 million Tesla vehicles over a vehicle-summoning feature that failed to recognize posts or parked vehicles, leading to accidents.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it had received one complaint alleging a crash when the “Actually Smart Summon” feature was enabled, and is reviewing media reports of three other incidents.
NHTSA “is aware of multiple crash allegations, involving both Smart Summon and Actually Smart Summon, where the user had too little reaction time to avoid a crash, either with the available line of sight or releasing the phone app button, which stops the vehicle’s movement,” the agency said Tuesday in a notice announcing the investigation.
Tesla’s Actually Smart Summon allows vehicle owners to remotely move their vehicle using a smartphone app. It replaced the more limited Smart Summon, which was the subject of 12 separate customer complaints, NHTSA said.
NHTSA said Tesla had not reported any of the crashes despite rules requiring manufacturers to report crashes involving automated driving systems.
Related Tesla news: Pentagon to blacklist China’s largest EV battery and tech firms
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