• Tesla is under investigation again by federal authorities, which could affect 2.6 million cars.
  • America’s NHTSA has opened a probe into Tesla’s Actually Smart Summon feature.
  • Four accidents have been attributed to the remote summon tech failing to notice obstacles.

Tesla’s safety record is under the microscope again, and yes, the issue relates to the automaker’s self-driving tech. This time it’s the remote summon tech that’s caught the eye of regulators who have received multiple reports of accidents that could have implications for 2.6 millions cars.

The NHTSA says it knows of one incident in which a Tesla vehicle failed to detect obstacles including posts and parked vehicles when the Actually Smart Summon feature was engaged, and has seen media reports of three more related crashes.

Related: Musk Says Media Coverage Of Cybertruck Explosion “Sabotages” Tesla’s Image, Threatens Lawsuits

Actually Smart Summon – which Tesla itself has shortened to… ASS in the interests of brevity – was introduced last fall as a supposedly superior successor to the earlier, simpler Smart Summon that only allowed owners to move their EVs in and out of a parking space using a smartphone. ASS takes things a step further by letting owners use their phones to direct their car to them, or to another spot.

But according to reports in the possession of the NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigations, ASS is not that clever and users were unable to prevent vehicles getting into accidents. Drivers 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,” the agency says.

Not that the older Smart Summon was faultless. The ODI reveals it has received 12 crash reports related to that feature. And one thing that will have annoyed safety investigators is that Tesla has failed to report any Smart Summon or ASS crashes, in contradiction of a “Standing General Order for crashes involving ADS or Level 2 ADAS, which requires reporting of crashes on publicly accessible roads”.

The ODI’s next step is to look at the top speed capability of an EV with ASS engaged, the “designed-in operating restrictions for use on public roads, and line of sight requirements.” The findings could result in a more in-depth study and potentially a recall.

The video above shows ASS performing faultlessly (well, it’s from Tesla, so no surprise there) and we can all think of hundreds of occasions when it was raining or we were carrying something heavy when it would be so handy to have your car whizz around and pick you up. But when Tesla’s Autopilot and FSD systems require a driver to be present in normal road use – and can’t be trusted not to drive straight into a moving train – how on earth are they allowed to sail around busy parking lots with no one at the wheel?