NHTSA opens engineering analysis of Tesla FSD visibility warnings
Mar 19th 2026
The safety regulator says Tesla's FSD 'degradation detection' can fail to warn drivers in poor visibility and is now in the final investigative phase before a possible recall.
- NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation has advanced to an engineering analysis of Tesla's Full Self-Driving degradation detection system.
- ODI says the system can fail to detect and warn drivers under glare and airborne obscurants.
- In reviewed crashes, alerts came only immediately before collisions or not at all.
- Tesla began developing a 2024 update after a 2023 fatal crash, but ODI does not know which vehicles received it.
- A prior NHTSA engineering analysis led to two recall waves that affected nearly every Tesla sold in the US.