Tesla Cybercab is already under NHTSA investigation after launch

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.

NHTSA has opened a formal investigation into comma.ai’s aftermarket driver assistance devices after five crashes where cars running openpilot plowed into stopped or slow-moving vehicles in their own lane. Two of those crashes killed three people. The probe covers an estimated 30,000 comma three, comma 3X, and comma four devices. It’s the biggest regulatory problem for George Hotz’s startup since NHTSA pushed it to cancel its first product back in 2016.

NHTSA has ordered Tesla to prove that its Cybercab is even legal to sell. The agency issued a formal Special Order on September 10 demanding that the company show, under oath, how a vehicle with no steering wheel, no pedals, and no mirrors complies with federal safety standards written for human drivers. Tesla has until September 30 to respond. Failing to answer fully and truthfully carries penalties of up to $139 million. more…

Despite hybrids being so hot right now and compact luxury crossovers being so hot right now, the overlap in the resulting Venn diagram has historically been small enough for but one vehicle: The Lexus NX. For more than a decade, Lexus has planted its flag firmly in the soil, declaring reign over the fuel-sipping corner of the reasonably-sized, reasonably posh, reasonably tall car market. Now it’s going all the way: with a 2027 refresh, the Lexus NX is going hybrid-only. It couldn’t have come at a more important moment. For the first time in what feels like forever, Lexus isn’t alone in taking electrification in this segment seriously. With new plug-in and non-plug-in rivals either already on the market or hitting showrooms imminently, Toyota’s brand for the Whole Foods set needed to keep up with the Joneses by revamping some of the weaker spots on its second-most-popular model. So, has it worked? I headed not far from the NX’s North American production plant to find out.

The great thing about doing this job is that it’s something I was doing anyway, looking at classified ads for crappy old cars and annoying people (usually my wife) by babbling about them. Now I just get to annoy a lot more people. The terrible thing about this job is finding a whole bunch of cars I wish I could buy, like the two I’m about to show you. One is on the wrong side of the country, and the other is nearby, but twice the price and broken. Yesterday we looked at a couple of Ford’s stranger post-malaise efforts: a diesel Escort and a 4WD Tempo. I was surprised by the results; I didn’t expect that many of you to cotton to the idea of a $4,000 Ford Escort. Oh, it still lost, but only by about two to one. I thought it would be a lot worse.

Vik is the Co-Founder and former Editor at MotorAuthority, a leading U. S. website covering performance and luxury cars. Since 2025, he has contributed to CarBuzz, blending his engineering background and almost 20 years of automotive journalism experience to deliver cutting-edge news and analysis. Ferrari unleashed the F80 hybrid hypercar at the tail end of 2024 as the latest entry in its Special Series, that collection of flagship models that includes cars like the LaFerrari and Enzo before it. And just like those previous entries, the F80 will spawn additional variants. One we know is coming is an open-top version. Another is likely to be a hardcore version designed strictly for track use, and we might already know its name.