Investigation Overview
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced on 2 July 2026 that it has closed its investigation into approximately 695,000 Tesla Inc. vehicles, specifically Model 3 and Model Y variants, that were previously flagged for unexpected deceleration. The agency concluded that the demonstrated hazard to drivers was low and that the frequency of reported incidents had sharply declined.
Incident Trend
When the probe commenced in 2022, NHTSA recorded 300 incident reports related to the deceleration issue. The number of reports decreased to 45 in 2024, further fell to 19 in 2025, and only three incidents have been reported since the start of 2026.
Mitigation Measures
Tesla responded to the safety concern by releasing software updates in early 2022 aimed at correcting the unexpected deceleration behavior. NHTSA’s final assessment indicated that the reported conditions did not alter the vehicle’s lateral positioning within lanes and did not cause a meaningful reduction in the distance between the affected vehicle and following traffic that would lead to a collision.
Related Probe
In a separate action, NHTSA also closed an expanded investigation covering an estimated 376,241 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles that had been examined for loss of steering control. This closure was announced the week prior to the deceleration probe conclusion.