The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced on Friday that it has contacted Tesla regarding the new driving mode ‘Mad Max,’ made available with the latest Full Self Driving (Supervised) update.
The new contact with the automaker follows the release of the FSD V14.1.2 update a week ago, which introduced two new driving modes — the ‘Sloth,’ for lower speeds, and the ‘Mad Max,’ for higher ones.
According to Tesla, “driver profile now has a stronger impact on behavior,” with “the more assertive the profile, the higher the max speed.”
The information was first reported by Reuters.
The auto safety regulator acted after several Tesla drivers shared on social media, over the past few days, that the new driving mode can lead the software to drive over speed limits.
Tesla had previously launched its “Mad Max” mode in vehicles — it was first introduced in the Autopilot system back in 2018.
The driving mode became known for being aggressive, letting drivers go faster, break speed limits, and change lanes swiftly — just like in the Mad Max movies, which inspired its name.
The company later pulled it after NHTSA found that the mode ignored speed limits.
After the release of version 14.2, social media images within the first 24 hours showed that the FSD with “Max Mode” activated ran stop signs and drove more than 15 mph (24 km/h) over the speed limit.
“Mad Max mode is INSANE,” X user and Tesla enthusiast Nic Cruz Patane wrote last week, sharing a video that showed his car reaching a speed of 85 miles per hour on a freeway.
“It drives your car like a sports car. If you are running late, this is the mode for you,” Patane added.
Available only for Tesla vehicles with Hardware 4, the FSD 14.1 — which is currently in its third update — includes a wide range of improvements, including better handling of system faults and smoother recovery from degraded operation, which enhances overall reliability.
The auto regulator had already opened a probe into 2.9 million Tesla vehicles equipped with the (previous) FSD software earlier this month.
According to the agency, the investigation followed more than 50 reports of traffic-safety violations and several vehicle crashes caused by the driver assistance software.
The company has started rolling out the latest version of the FSD to the wider public, with the v14.1.3 launched earlier this week.
Until then, a restricted group of Tesla owners had early access to the software, for testing.
