A petition asking U.S. safety regulators to open a defect investigation says Tesla’s driverless robotaxis speed through active school zones. The request reached the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on September 23, and the agency opened the file on October 9. It is a petition under review, not an investigation, and no crash or injury is reported.
What the petition says
It targets 2026-model-year Robotaxis running Tesla’s driving software, which NHTSA estimates at about 1,000 vehicles, a mix of Model Y and Cybercab. Tesla does not publish its robotaxi count, so the number of cars actually on the road is unknown. The evidence listed is three videos from social media and four incidents in NHTSA’s own records. None involved a crash or injury. The sources we found do not name who filed the petition.
What happens next
NHTSA has 120 days from receipt, until about January 21, 2027, to grant or deny the request. A grant would open a formal investigation, and those can end in a recall. We have not seen a Tesla response. On October 10, Tesla said more than 300 Cybercabs are operating in Austin, which we covered in Tesla Says It Has 300+ Cybercabs in Austin.
Not the only review
This is the third federal action on Tesla’s driverless fleet in about five weeks. NHTSA is also asking how the Cybercab, which has no steering wheel or pedals, was certified as meeting federal safety rules. Tesla’s answers to NHTSA’s questions on that are now due October 30, after an extension. Speeding by Tesla’s driverless cars has drawn attention since the Austin launch in June 2025. Waymo faced a related school-safety issue in 2025 over passing stopped school buses and answered with a voluntary software recall covering more than 3,000 vehicles in December 2025.
Our take: a petition is a request, and NHTSA can deny it. Three videos and four incidents with no injuries is thin evidence on its own. Even so, school zones are where regulators and parents pay the most attention, and this is the third review of Tesla’s driverless fleet in a short time. Tesla reports third-quarter results on October 21, and how it talks about safety there is worth watching. Details: Tesla Sets Its Q3 Earnings Report for October 21.
