Tesla has continued to encounter hefty skepticism in relation to its vision-only approach to autonomous driving. Now, as the EV giant gears up to introduce an unsupervised version of the FSD as soon as next year, the NHTSA has launched a new investigation into the supposedly impaired ability of Tesla's bespoke autonomy solution to navigate reduced visibility conditions.
To wit, the NHTSA has now launched a preliminary investigation into a number of road accidents that occurred in reduced visibility conditions with Tesla's FSD enabled, with at least one of the four accidents under investigation proving to be fatal. The agency notes:
"In these crashes, the reduced roadway visibility arose from conditions such as sun glare, fog, or airborne dust."
While the investigation appears to be of a preliminary nature, any adverse finding down the road would severely hamper Tesla's ambitions to rollout the unsupervised capability of its FSD by next year, which in turn would curtail the envisioned launch of its fully autonomous Cybercab by 2026.
Bear in mind that Elon Musk had announced during the Cybercab reveal event on the 10th of October that the "completely autonomous" unsupervised FSD for Models S, 3, X, and Y will start rolling out next year in Texas and California, and the Cybercab will officially launch "before 2027."
Even so, some analysts have remained skeptical of Tesla's autonomy-related plans, given the available data from the California DMV, where Waymo records a disengagement every 17,311 miles on average, which far exceeds the FSD's current abilities.
Of course, a detrimental ruling by the NHTSA might force Tesla to augment its vision-only approach to autonomous driving by incorporating LiDAR sensors. This outcome, however, will not only prove quite costly but also substantially push back Tesla's autonomy-related ambitions, especially as the unsupervised FSD is currently being trained on a vision-only neural network.
About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025. As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover. When I'm not writing, I'm traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur.
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