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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has closed its investigation into Tesla’s divisive “Actually Smart Summon” feature, an autonomous system that allows vehicles to collect passengers from parking lots or garages remotely using an app.
The feature requires the passenger to select a location within a short radius and claims to be able to navigate out of tight parking spaces or from the other side of a busy car park, fully driver-out.
Tesla’s “Actually Smart Summon,” or “ASS” technology, has come under scrutiny following a number of incidents involving minor property and vehicle damage.
The NHTSA opened its case in January 2025 and covered approximately 2.6 million vehicles, including the Tesla Model S, X, 3, and Y.
A report issued on 3 April determined the case was closed due to the lack of severity of the incidents. The report read:
“Almost all Summon-reported crashes involved minor property damage claims, with no reported incidents involving a vulnerable road user, injury, fatality, or major property damage, as indicated by an airbag deployment or vehicle tow-away.”
Critically, all the reported collisions occurred at low speed and were not linked to any injuries or fatalities. Most of these collisions involved stationary objects such as parked cars, bollards, and automated parking gate arms.
Following the opening of the investigation, Tesla has rolled out a series of over-the-air updates to address the shortfall. These updates improve the vehicle’s capacity to operate under extreme conditions such as heavy snow and low visibility.
The NHTSA has determined that these updates adequately address the issues raised in the preliminary investigation, although it reserves the right to reopen the case should new information come to light.
This relative win for Tesla stands against a chequered backdrop of regulatory scrutiny and multiple lawsuits, including a successful ban from the state of California regarding Tesla’s misleading “fully self-driving” branding. In this case, the state ruled that the terminology exaggerated Tesla’s Level 2 “fully self-driving” feature and was therefore disingenuous.
While Tesla’s Actually Smart Summon feature may be out of hot water for the time being, the NHTSA is simultaneously accelerating its probe into Tesla’s FSD technology following nine reported crashes.
The agency’s investigation explores the safety of the feature under low-visibility conditions such as direct sunlight or extreme weather and has been escalated to an engineering analysis, with the scope to recall over three million vehicles. A decision has yet to be reached.
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