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Self Driving Cars
US regulators have granted a five-week extension for Tesla to respond to allegations that its vehicles have broken traffic laws while operating in what the electric automaker calls full self-driving mode. An investigation of Tesla's full-self driving feature was opened in October after the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration said it had collected dozens of reports of the cars running red lights or driving on the wrong side of the road, sometimes crashing into other vehicles and causing injuries. The investigation covered 2.9 million vehicles, essentially all Teslas equipped with full self-driving technology, or FSD. Critics say the name is a misnomer that has lulled drivers into handing full control over to their cars. The federal agency responsible for auto safety said in a letter to Tesla on December 3, 2025 that it was investigating 62 complaints, up from 58 reported incidents in October. Tesla, headed by billionaire CEO Elon Musk, has argued to regulators and in .
Federal traffic safety regulators are looking into suspected problems with Elon Musk's test run of self-driving "robotaxis" in Texas after videos surfaced showing them braking suddenly or going straight through an intersection from a turning lane and driving down the wrong side of the road. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Tuesday that it has asked Tesla for information about the apparent errors. Though many other videos show robotaxis driving perfectly, if regulators find any major issues, that would likely raise questions about Musk's repeated statements that the robotaxis are safe and his claim that Tesla will dominate a future in which nearly all cars on road will have no one behind the wheel or even need a steering wheel at all. "NHTSA is aware of the referenced incidents and is in contact with the manufacturer to gather additional information," the agency said in a statement. Passengers in Tesla robotaxis on the road in Austin, Texas, have generally bee
US regulators have opening an investigation into 2.6 million Tesla after reports of crashes involving the use of company technology that allows drivers to remotely command their vehicle to return to them, or move to another location, using a phone app. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also said Tuesday that Tesla has failed to report any of the accidents. Tesla is under order to report crashes on publicly accessible roads involving vehicles being operated through its autonomous driving technology. The new investigation follows another probe launched in October looking into the company's Full Self-Driving system after getting reports of crashes in low-visibility conditions, including one that killed a pedestrian. That investigation covers 2.4 million Teslas from the 2016 through 2024 model years. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press on Tuesday. One driver filed a complaint after a crash while using Tesla's Actually Smart Summon .
Self-driving cars could be on British roads as early as 2026, according to UK Transport Secretary Mark Harper. In an interview with the BBC on Wednesday, the minister said he expected to see the owners of such vehicles being able to travel without having to watch where they're going by the end of that year. It came against the backdrop of the UK's Automated Vehicles Bill, which lays out a set of laws for using autonomous vehicles and was introduced in Parliament last month. The government hopes it will pass through both Houses by the end of 2024. "I think that's when companies are expecting in 2026, during that year that we'll start seeing this technology rolled out," Harper told the BBC. The transport minister said it was clear the self-driving technology works from a roll-out in California, where cars "without a safety driver, so in full, autonomous mode" are already on the roads. "This technology exists, it works and what we're doing is putting in place the proper legislation