Tesla FSD Running Red Lights

What Is PE25-012?

Preliminary Evaluation PE25-012 is an NHTSA investigation opened in 2025 to examine reports that Tesla vehicles running FSD software were failing to stop at red traffic signals. The investigation was triggered by a pattern of consumer complaints and incident reports describing the vehicle proceeding through intersections against red lights, sometimes at significant speed.

The investigation specifically focuses on Tesla's FSD supervised software and its handling of traffic control devices. NHTSA is examining whether the system's behavior constitutes a safety defect that requires a recall.

The "Mad Max" Mode Problem

Tesla FSD includes driving profile settings that control how aggressively the vehicle drives. The most aggressive setting, colloquially known as "Mad Max" mode (officially "Assertive"), changes how the vehicle approaches intersections, lane changes, and following distances. Multiple complaints specifically cite this mode as a factor in red-light running incidents.

In Assertive mode, the vehicle is programmed to make quicker decisions at intersections — including tighter yellow-light timing. Critics argue this creates scenarios where the vehicle enters an intersection after the light has turned red, particularly when approaching at higher speeds or when the system misjudges the timing of a yellow-to-red transition.

Some owners have reported the vehicle running red lights even in the standard "Average" driving profile, suggesting the issue may not be limited to the aggressive mode but could reflect deeper perception or decision-making flaws in the FSD software.

Consumer Complaints

NHTSA's complaint database contains 2,482complaints related to Tesla's autonomous features. Common themes in intersection-related complaints include:

• Red light running: Vehicle proceeds through intersection after light turns red, sometimes without any attempt to slow down.
• Yellow light misjudgment: Vehicle accelerates through yellow lights instead of stopping, entering intersection on red.
• Stop sign rolling: Vehicle fails to come to complete stop, instead performing a "rolling stop" or proceeding without stopping.
• Phantom green: Vehicle appears to perceive a green light when the signal is actually red, possibly due to misidentification of nearby signals.
• Turning conflicts: Vehicle initiates turns at intersections when oncoming traffic has the right of way.

Intersection Safety in Context

Intersections are among the most challenging environments for autonomous systems. Across all manufacturers, 1,230 incidents in the NHTSA database occurred at intersections. These locations require the vehicle to correctly identify traffic signals, understand right-of-way rules, predict the behavior of other vehicles and pedestrians, and make time-critical go/no-go decisions.

The complexity of intersection driving is a key reason why many ADS companies (like Waymo) initially focused on simpler driving domains before expanding to complex urban intersections. Tesla's approach of deploying FSD broadly across all road types means the system encounters intersection scenarios that it may not handle reliably in all conditions.

What Happens Next

If NHTSA's Preliminary Evaluation finds sufficient evidence of a defect, the investigation could escalate to an Engineering Analysis and ultimately lead to a recall. Given Tesla's history with FSD recalls (the system has been recalled multiple times for traffic control device violations), a recall outcome is plausible. Any remedy would likely be delivered as an OTA software update modifying how FSD handles intersection timing and traffic signals.