Researcher finds that Tesla's unintended acceleration issues may be caused by a hardware issue
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has reopened its investigation into a potential design flaw in Tesla vehicles, which may lead to sudden unintended acceleration. This comes after allegations were made that a voltage spike deep within the control systems could cause the vehicle to incorrectly read an accelerator input, even when none has occurred.
A Faulty Inverter at the Heart of the Issue?
The vehicle's inverter design is the center of these new allegations. The theory, put forward by researcher Dr. Ronald A. Belt, proposes that a flaw in the design could interpret a random voltage spike as a pedal application in rare instances. This is due to the Model 3's inverter using a single 1.65-volt calibration signal to monitor four ADCs (analog-to-digital converters, which convert the pedal position into an electric signal for the car).
When Voltage Spikes Trigger Unintended Acceleration
Under certain circumstances, such as slow driving, when the power steering requires more power, the draw on the 12-volt battery can cause a significant spike in the system. This voltage surge could lead the inverter to incorrectly conclude that the accelerator pedal has been pressed, resulting in unintended acceleration.
This unexpected acceleration could theoretically happen when a voltage spike, lasting only microseconds, occurs simultaneously as the car performs an ADC check, also lasting microseconds. Belt suggests that the frequency of these events aligns with the 200 or so incidents reported between 2013 and 2019.
The Silent Culprit
Adding complexity to this issue, Belt contends that due to the nature of the fault, it does not get logged as an error. The inverter’s misinterpretation of a voltage spike as a throttle input leaves no trace, leading to discrepancies between Tesla's vehicle data and owners' accounts, possibly explaining why the ODI initially denied the petition.
While Belt's allegations primarily focus on the Model 3, which features a unique inverter design, he notes that similar errors could occur in Model S and Model X vehicles. This opens up the potential for a broader scope in the ongoing investigation.
The NHTSA will now assess Belt's report to ascertain the validity of its findings. This isn't the first petition directed at NHTSA to investigate unintended acceleration in Tesla vehicles, but it presents a novel perspective, emphasizing a potential design flaw rather than a driver or software issue.
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With Q1 2025 now behind us, another round of Tesla’s Supercharger Voting has wrapped up. The previous vote took place back in December, and we now get to see which locations came out on top.
Let’s take a look at the Q1 2025 winners of the Supercharger Vote:
North America
🇺🇸 Lake Wales, FL
🇺🇸 Henderson, NV
🇺🇸 Clarksville, TN
🇺🇸 Roswell, NM
🇺🇸 Long Beach, CA
🇺🇸 Decatur, IL
🇺🇸 McAlester, OK
Europe
🇬🇧 Bournemouth, United Kingdom
🇮🇹 Bari, Italy
🇵🇱 Wrocław, Poland
🇨🇿 Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
Asia-Pacific
🇰🇷 Namyangju - South Korea
🇦🇺 Nicholls, Australia
Supercharger Voting Q2 2025
Another quarter means another round of Tesla's Supercharger Voting, giving Tesla owners the chance to influence where new Supercharger sites will be built. Following the Q1 2025 voting round, Tesla is now opening the polls for Q2 2025.
How to Vote
To participate in the Q2 2025 Supercharger Voting, visit the Tesla Supercharger Voting page and sign in to your Tesla account. You can vote for up to five different locations, with a limit of one vote per location, every three months. The most popular Superchargers are displayed on the leaderboard, and you can also suggest new locations for future voting cycles.
We’ve known for a while now that Tesla has been using a custom build of FSD to allow its newly produced vehicles at Giga Texas and Fremont to autonomously navigate themselves from the production line to the outbound delivery lot.
While we knew they were using a custom build of what was likely FSD Unsupervised, thanks to a recent post from Tesla AI on X, this has now been confirmed. Tesla has also confirmed it has accrued over 50,000 driverless miles, totalled from vehicles autonomously driving themselves to delivery lots.
Giga Texas production now uses FSD Unsupervised to deliver cars from end of line to the outbound logistics lot.
Over 50,000 driverless miles have been accrued between California and Texas factories so far pic.twitter.com/79zKY0U6Ox
For most of Tesla’s vehicles - that’s a 1.4-mile trip that is shared with pedestrians, cars, trucks, and construction equipment. You can see in the video that the Teslas are navigating public roadways and encountering real human drivers.
That’s great news, especially since many were wondering whether Tesla would secure the necessary approvals in time to launch their Robotaxi network in June.
Increased Confidence
Following Tesla’s post to X, Musk followed up by saying that when Tesla launches FSD Unsupervised soon, it will be the first time there will be a generalized, pure AI solution to autonomy. Tesla and several executives continue to post more content about autonomy and the Robotaxi network, leading us to believe they’re feeling confident in the June launch.
Model Ys autonomously navigate a 1.4 mile trip on a road shared with pedestrians, cars, semi trucks, construction equipment & more pic.twitter.com/iPx2fs78v2
Back when Tesla initially announced the autonomous travel of its vehicles from production to loading lots, they mentioned that the Cybertruck was the only vehicle at Giga Texas not receiving that same treatment.
Now, that’s changed - Cybertruck is now also navigating through the Cybertunnel to make its way from the factory directly to the loading docks, all on Unsupervised FSD. And that’s making us even more excited, especially because Tesla was supposed to launch an FSD Update for the Cybertruck a little while ago - but it hasn’t made it to production yet. This update is set to bring Start FSD from Park, as well as Actually Smart Summon - bringing the Cybertruck to feature parity with Tesla’s other AI4 vehicles.
Cybertrucks autonomously navigate a 0.6 mile route traversing beneath one of America's fastest highways, emerging through a steep 17% grade to reach their destination pic.twitter.com/3ZMYCRPhIj
Now that Tesla is confidently using a build of Unsupervised FSD to navigate the tight confines of the tunnel and park, we’re pretty sure that Tesla will likely launch the expected FSD update in the near future.
FSD Update Soon?
It’s been a while since any FSD hardware variant has received an FSD update. It appears that Tesla has been focused on Unsupervised FSD and launching FSD outside of North America.
It seems like we may get a new FSD update soon, and we don’t believe it’ll be just for the Cybertruck. Those who have the opportunity to sign up for Tesla’s new Early Access program will likely be some of the first recipients to receive the FSD update, so stay tuned.
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