The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has terminated its inquiry into Tesla’s automated parking system, dubbed “Actually Smart Summon.” Regulators concluded that incidents involving the feature were infrequent, occurred at minimal speeds, and did not lead to serious harm.
In a Friday update, NHTSA emphasized that shuttering the investigation does not equate to a definitive safety clearance. The agency retains the authority to revisit the matter if new evidence emerges.
Tesla rolled out the remote parking capability via an over-the-air software patch in September 2024. It enables owners to command their vehicles to navigate autonomously at slow velocities using only the car’s camera array, without ultrasonic sensors.
This deployment marked a shift from the prior “Smart Summon” iteration, which relied on ultrasonic sensors—hardware absent from newer Tesla models. The camera-only approach sparked regulatory scrutiny.
NHTSA launched the probe in January 2025 following dozens of crash reports linked to “Actually Smart Summon.” The investigation spanned millions of activation events.
Analysis revealed that fewer than one percent of Summon sessions resulted in any incident. Most involved trivial property damage, such as collisions with gates, stationary vehicles, or bollards.
According to the report, “no reported incidents involving a vulnerable road user, injury, fatality, or major property damage as indicated by an air bag deployment or vehicle tow away” were documented.
Investigators determined that failures in environmental detection were common, often stemming from restricted visibility in the app’s camera feed. In some cases, snow obscured the lens, and the system did not identify the obstruction.
Tesla has deployed multiple software updates to enhance camera blockage detection and object recognition, as noted by NHTSA. These refinements aim to mitigate the issues uncovered during the inquiry.
