news March 20, 2026

NHTSA Closes Tesla Recall Petition Covering 2.26 Million Vehicles

The U.S. auto safety regulator has rejected a petition seeking a sweeping recall of approximately 2.26 million Tesla vehicles, saying the evidence does not support a defect finding.

By Marcus Holloway

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced on March 20, 2026 that it had closed a defect petition covering approximately 2.26 million Tesla vehicles — essentially the entire fleet of Tesla vehicles sold in the U.S. equipped with the company’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) driver assistance systems. The agency said its investigation found insufficient evidence to support a defect finding warranting a recall.

What the Petition Covered

The petition, filed by a coalition of safety advocates in 2023, alleged that Tesla’s Autopilot system — which provides lane-keeping, adaptive cruise control, and automatic lane changes — and the more advanced FSD system were defective in their design and operation. The petitioners argued that the systems had been involved in a disproportionate number of crashes and that Tesla’s marketing of the systems as “self-driving” created unreasonable risk.

The petition came amid heightened scrutiny of Tesla’s driver assistance systems following a series of high-profile crashes in which Tesla vehicles operating under Autopilot or FSD struck emergency vehicles, pedestrians, and other vehicles. NHTSA had opened a formal investigation into Autopilot in 2021.

What NHTSA Found

In its closing summary, NHTSA said its investigation identified several areas where Tesla’s systems could be improved — particularly the system that monitors driver attention to ensure hands are on the wheel and eyes on the road — but concluded that the evidence did not support a finding of a defect in the sense contemplated by the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.

“NHTSA’s analysis of the available data does not establish that the systems at issue fail to perform as intended under all conditions, or that the risks associated with their use are unreasonable,” the agency said in a statement. “The agency will continue to monitor the performance of these systems and reserves the right to reopen this investigation should new evidence warrant.”

The agency noted that Tesla had implemented over-the-air updates to improve driver monitoring and system performance during the investigation period, which complicated the analysis.

Tesla’s Response

Tesla, which has consistently maintained that its driver assistance systems are safer than human driving when properly supervised, celebrated the decision. CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the decision “confirms what the data has always shown — Tesla Autopilot and FSD reduce accident rates compared to human drivers.”

Tesla has been sued in multiple civil cases involving Autopilot and FSD crashes, with varying outcomes. A California jury in 2023 found Tesla not liable in a case involving a fatal Autopilot crash, while a Texas jury in 2024 found the company partially liable in another Autopilot-related fatality. The regulatory landscape remains a significant ongoing risk for Tesla.

Safety Advocate Response

The Center for Auto Safety, one of the petitioners, called the decision “deeply disappointing” and said it was reviewing the agency’s full reasoning for potential legal challenge.

“The data is clear: Tesla’s systems have been involved in a disproportionate number of serious crashes, and the company’s marketing of these systems as ‘self-driving’ has created unreasonable confusion about their capabilities among consumers,” executive director David Friedman said in a statement.

The debate over Tesla’s driver assistance systems reflects a broader tension in the industry between the pace of automated driving technology deployment and the regulatory framework for evaluating safety claims. Level 2 systems like Autopilot and FSD require active driver supervision and are not “self-driving” in any regulatory sense — but the marketing language used by Tesla and others has created persistent consumer confusion about what the systems can and cannot do.

Motorlinks covers vehicle safety and regulation. For more on Tesla’s Autopilot and FSD, see our Tesla brand reputation analysis.