Incident reports fell from 300 when the probe opened in 2022 to just 3 so far in 2026, the NHTSA said
Sjoerd van der Wal/Getty Images
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration closed its preliminary evaluation Thursday into unexpected deceleration affecting 695,000 Tesla $TSLA vehicles, citing a low demonstrated hazard and a steep decline in incident reports, according to Reuters.
Complaints tied to unexpected decelerationwhile using Tesla's Autopilot, Full Self-Driving, and Traffic Aware Cruise Control features prompted regulators to act, The Wall Street Journal reported. About 416,000 Tesla Model 3 sedans and Model Y SUVs from the 2021 and 2022 model years fell within the scope of the early 2022 inquiry.
Software updates pushed by Tesla in early 2022 were aimed at curbing the sudden deceleration events, according to NHTSA. The 300 complaints on file when investigators first opened the case dwindled steadily over subsequent years — to 45 in 2024, 19 in 2025, and just three in the period since January 2026. Regulators further determined that the deceleration episodes neither pushed vehicles out of their lanes nor closed the gap with trailing traffic enough to pose a realistic crash risk.
Investigators pointed to Tesla's move away from radar toward a camera-only perception system as a likely factor behind the phantom braking episodes. The probe turned up no crashes attributable to the problem.
Closing the evaluation does not mean regulators have ruled out the existence of a safety-related defect, NHTSA noted, adding that it could take additional action if circumstances warrant.
The phantom braking closure is the latest in a series of NHTSA reviews involving Tesla to be resolved in recent months. The agency wrapped up an engineering analysis into power steering loss affecting about 376,241 Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles from the 2023 model year, following a Tesla recall in early 2025 that addressed the problem through a remote software fix. A separate NHTSA investigation involving roughly 2.6 million Tesla vehicles and centered on a remote-movement feature was also closed after regulators determined that any connected incidents occurred only at low speeds.
NHTSA has continued scrutiny of Tesla's driver-assistance technology on other fronts. The agency opened a special crash investigation into a Tesla Model 3 that struck a home in Katy, Texas, killing a woman inside. Agency records show 46 special crash investigations over the past ten years have involved Teslas operating with self-driving or driver-assistance systems, with fatalities recorded in more than a dozen of them.
Join 500,000+ readers who start their day with Quartz.
By subscribing, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
