NHTSA Closed the Autopilot Controls File on April 25, 2024. Tesla's Report Says It Did Not Concur.

An engineering analysis, a recall report, and a recall query are three files. Tesla’s report describes a voluntary software remedy and says the company did not concur with the agency’s analysis. NHTSA’s closing resume says the work aligned with Tesla’s conclusion in that report, and it says the query that opened the same day is about whether the remedy is adequate. The 2026 school-zone petition is a different file.

Supervised Full Self-Driving is FSD. The October 2026 robotaxi petition is DP26010. The company is Tesla.

What’s confirmed

What Tesla’s recall report says

Tesla’s Part 573 report, NHTSA recall 23V-838, manufacturer number SB-23-00-008, submission date December 12, 2023, lists a population of 2,031,220. The estimated percentage with the defect is 100%.

The vehicles in that report are certain 2012–2023 Model S equipped with Autosteer, produced October 5, 2012, through December 7, 2023; 2016–2023 Model X, produced September 15, 2015, through December 7, 2023; 2017–2023 Model 3, produced July 15, 2017, through December 7, 2023; and 2020–2023 Model Y, produced January 9, 2020, through December 7, 2023. The descriptive paragraph says the population is those Autosteer-equipped cars produced through December 7, 2023.

Tesla’s defect description says Basic Autopilot includes Autosteer and Traffic-Aware Cruise Control, which it calls SAE Level 2 features. It says Autosteer “is designed and intended for use on controlled-access highways” when it is not operating with Autosteer on City Streets. It says the driver is the operator, with hands on the wheel, and must intervene. It says: “In certain circumstances when Autosteer is engaged, the prominence and scope of the feature’s controls may not be sufficient to prevent driver misuse.”

The safety-risk paragraph says that if a driver misuses the feature, fails to stay ready to intervene, fails to recognize a cancellation, or fails to recognize limited functionality, “there may be an increased risk of a collision.”

The chronology says NHTSA opened Preliminary Evaluation PE21-020 on August 13, 2021, on eleven incidents involving stationary first-responder vehicles and Tesla vehicles operating with Autosteer engaged. It says NHTSA upgraded that file to Engineering Analysis EA22-002 on June 8, 2022. It says that from October 16, 2023, through December 4, 2023, the agency and Tesla discussed the agency’s tentative conclusions, a voluntary recall, and over-the-air remedies. Then: “While not concurring with the agency’s analysis, in the interest of resolving EA22-002, Tesla determined on December 5, 2023, to voluntarily administer a recall.” As of December 8, 2023, Tesla says it had identified 9 warranty claims, received between July 13, 2021, and September 17, 2023, that may be related.

The remedy is an over-the-air software update at no cost, expected to begin on or shortly after December 12, 2023, with software version 2023.44.30, and later for the remaining vehicles. Tesla says the additional controls include more prominent visual alerts, simpler engagement and disengagement, extra checks off controlled-access highways and when approaching traffic controls, and eventual suspension from Autosteer if the driver repeatedly fails to show continuous responsibility. It says production vehicles began receiving a software release with the remedy at midday on December 7, 2023. Owner notification was planned for February 10, 2024.

Label: Tesla’s report. “Not concurring” is Tesla’s chronology. The population is potentially involved vehicles, and the defect percentage is Tesla’s estimate of 100 percent. Nine warranty claims are not a crash count. Cybertruck is not a name in the vehicle list this desk read.

What the closing resume says

NHTSA’s closing resume for EA22002 says the file was prompted by PE21020, opened June 8, 2022, and closed April 25, 2024. The subject is “Autopilot System Driver Controls.” The product line is 2012–2023 Model Y, X, S, and 3 equipped with Autopilot, manufactured up to December 7. The population is 2,031,220.

The resume defines Autopilot as the simultaneous use of Traffic-Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer. It says Tesla characterizes it as an SAE Level 2 partial driving automation system under the driver’s supervision.

It says ODI analyzed 956 crashes reported up to August 30, 2023. In approximately half, which the resume prints as 489, ODI found insufficient data, fault with the other vehicle, that Autopilot was not in use, or that the crash was otherwise unrelated. Of the remaining 467, it describes three categories: frontal collisions with adequate time for an attentive driver to respond (211), roadway departures in which the driver’s inputs inadvertently disengaged Autosteer (111), and roadway departures in low traction such as wet roads (145). Adding 211, 111, and 145 is this desk’s check that those three printed counts equal the 467 the resume prints for the remaining set. Adding 489 and 467 is this desk’s check that they equal the 956. The resume does not print those additions.

The failure-report table, which says the total eliminates duplicates, prints 13 fatality incidents and 14 fatalities, 32 injury incidents and 54 injuries. The prose says ODI identified “at least 13 crashes involving one or more fatalities and many more involving serious injuries, in which foreseeable driver misuse of the system played an apparent role.” Label: Both sentences are in the resume. Thirteen fatality incidents and fourteen fatalities are not the same cell. “At least 13” is the prose. “Played an apparent role” is the resume’s phrasing. It is not a criminal finding, and it is not Tesla’s warranty count of 9.

The resume says that on December 12, 2023, Tesla filed the defect report for 23V838, stated that the prominence and scope of the controls may be insufficient to prevent driver misuse, and described a remedy. It says the investigation “aligns with Tesla’s conclusion” in that report, and that the controls and warnings were insufficient for a system that requires constant supervision. It says ODI is closing EA22002 because of the recall, and that concurrent with the closing it opened Recall Query RQ24009 to assess the remedy.

Label: The closing resume. “Aligns with Tesla’s conclusion” is ODI’s sentence. Tesla’s chronology says the company was “not concurring with the agency’s analysis.” This page does not rewrite one of those sentences as the other. The resume’s product line does not use the word Cybertruck.

The recall query opened the same day

The opening resume for RQ24009 is dated April 25, 2024. The subject is “Recall 23V838 Remedy Effectiveness.” The action line is “A Recall Query has been opened.” The product line says 2012–2024 Model Y, X, S, 3, and Cybertruck equipped with Autopilot. The population is 2,031,220 (Estimated).

The summary says the query will assess whether the 23V838 remedy is adequate. It repeats Tesla’s line that the prominence and scope of the controls may be insufficient to prevent driver misuse. It says that after the remedy was deployed, ODI had concerns from post-remedy crashes and from preliminary tests of remedied vehicles. It says Tesla has stated that a portion of the remedy requires the owner to opt in and allows a driver to readily reverse it. It says Tesla also deployed updates that were not part of the recall, and that the query will consider why those updates were not part of the recall. The incident table on the opening resume prints 20 crashes under “Other,” described as crashes in the three primary categories reported primarily to the Standing General Order, and zeros for injuries and fatalities.

Label: The opening resume. A recall query is not a new defect finding. The product line on this resume names Cybertruck and model year 2024. The Part 573 vehicle list this desk read does not. Both documents print 2,031,220. This page does not decide that the populations are the same set of vehicles. A closing resume for RQ24009 was not the file retrieved. This page does not say the query is still open, and it does not say it has closed.

A different recall, and a different 2026 file

Part 573 recall 23V-085, filed February 15, 2023, is the FSD Beta report already on the school-zone page. That page records Tesla’s population of 362,758 and four conditions, one of them variable speed zones. It is not 23V-838. Autosteer on City Streets, which that report calls Full Self-Driving Beta, is not the Autosteer description in 23V-838.

DP26010, opened October 9, 2026, is a defect petition about robotaxi speed claims in school zones. A petition is not this recall. AQ26002 is the Cybercab certification audit. It is not RQ24009.

Claims and open questions

Tesla’s “not concurring” and ODI’s “aligns with Tesla’s conclusion” are both on the record. They are not a single sentence about who agreed with whom.

The 13 fatality incidents, the 14 fatalities, and the “at least 13 crashes” are the closing resume’s figures. The 9 warranty claims are Tesla’s. None of those is a count of deaths Tesla printed in the recall report this desk read. The recall report’s risk language is “there may be an increased risk of a collision.”

The opening resume’s 20 crashes are the table on that two-page document. They are not a finding that the remedy failed. The resume says the query was opened to evaluate that question.

No Tesla comment dated after the December 12, 2023 report was opened for this page. No closing document for RQ24009 was retrieved.

On the map

FSD (Supervised) is the product page. The 2023 Beta recall and the 2026 school-zone petition are DP26010. Robotaxi is the service page. The company is Tesla. The lawsuits section is the docket list. This file is a regulator’s defect record, not a verdict in a civil case.

Sources

Checked October 21, 2026.