Tesla’s In The Hot Seat Over Report About Its ‘Smart Summon’ Feature

America’s largest EV maker didn’t achieve its global prominence without a few roadblocks — no pun intended — along the way. And Tesla’s embrace of autonomous driving features has been a major source of concern and calls for increased regulation.

Now, the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration is calling out the company’s Actually Smart Summon feature, which is designed to park Tesla vehicles remotely.

Starting with 16

Roughly 2.6 million Tesla vehicles are equipped with the remote parking capability, which has generally remained under the radar (until now) since it was first introduced nearly a decade ago.

But after identifying 16 crashes that somehow involved the feature, the NHTSA determined that the matter deserves additional scrutiny by its Office of Defects Investigation.

The agency revealed that the models involved in the crashes include:

• 2016-2025 Model S
• 2017-2025 Model 3
• 2016-2025 Model X
• 2020-2025 Model Y

There have been no injuries reported in connection with the feature.

All fun and games

The NHTSA is clearly taking the matter seriously, explaining in a statement that it will be probing “multiple crash allegations, involving both Smart Summon and Actually Smart Summon, where the user had too little reaction time to avoid a crash, either with the available line of sight or releasing the phone app button, which stops the vehicle’s movement.”

Some say Tesla owner Elon Musk might not be too concerned, however, given his close connection with President-elect Donald Trump.

It’s also worth noting that Musk’s penchant for wordplay (whether clever, juvenile, or both) is on full display in Tesla’s lineup.

You can arrange the model names — as in the list above — to spell “sexy” with a 3 replacing the E. And the remote parking feature, which was rebranded as Actually Smart Summon, thus creating an acronym we’ll refrain from spelling out.

Chris Agee January 8th, 2025

Share this story: