A new defect petition accuses Tesla’s Robotaxis of speeding through active school zones, and NHTSA has opened a file to decide whether to investigate. The agency puts the affected fleet at about 1,000 vehicles, Model Y and Cybercab.
It’s the third federal action aimed at Tesla’s driverless fleet in about five weeks, after an audit query and a Special Order over how the Cybercab was certified.
A petition, not an investigation (yet)
The Office of Defects Investigation opened the file, DP26010, on Friday, October 9, according to the agency’s opening resume. The request itself reached NHTSA on September 23 and targets model year 2026 Robotaxis running with Tesla’s Automated Driving System (ADS) engaged.
The evidence file is small: three social media videos, linked in the petition, and four incidents in NHTSA’s own tally. No crashes, injuries, or deaths.
Federal rules (49 CFR Part 552) give NHTSA 120 days from receiving a petition to grant or deny it, which puts the deadline around January 21, 2027. A grant means a formal defect investigation, and those can end in a recall.
NHTSA just put a number on Tesla’s fleet
The 1,000 figure is news on its own. Tesla doesn’t disclose how many Robotaxis it operates, and as recently as June, community trackers counted only a few dozen active cars across Austin, Dallas, and Houston, as we reported at the time.
Tesla has added the Cybercab since, starting commercial service in Austin on September 3. NHTSA labels its count an estimate. Still, it’s the first federal number we’ve seen for the size of the fleet.
It appears that NHTSA might be using the number of vehicles Tesla is officially adding to the fleet through the Texas DMV certification, but those are not all active in the fleet.
Speed has come up before
This isn’t the first time Tesla’s software has been flagged for speed. Videos from the Austin Robotaxi launch in June 2025 showed cars going over the limit, and NHTSA said at the time it was in contact with Tesla about them.
In October 2025, NHTSA opened another investigation into Full Self-Driving over traffic-law violations like running red lights and driving into the wrong lane. A week later, Tesla shipped a “Mad Max” FSD profile that ignores speed limits.
But there’s an important difference here. With FSD (Supervised), the owner picks a profile and is responsible for the car. A Robotaxi has no owner behind the wheel. When the ADS decides how fast to go past a school, Tesla made that decision.
The petition lands on top of the Cybercab certification fight. NHTSA ordered Tesla to prove under oath that a car with no pedals or steering wheel meets federal safety standards, with answers due September 30. NHTSA hasn’t made Tesla’s answers public.
Waymo had its own school problem
Waymo isn’t clean here either. Late last year, Austin ISD reported Waymo vehicles illegally passing stopped school buses about 20 times, and Waymo answered with a voluntary software recall in December 2025. We covered the fallout when Waymo’s founder went after Tesla’s safety record in the middle of it.
Waymo fixed it with a recall filed with NHTSA. We’ll see if Tesla does the same, or waits for the agency to decide for it.
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