The investigation into the summons feature likely comes as a blow to Tesla, which has been trying to advance its driverless capabilities lately. In a somewhat controversial move, Tesla's summons feature relies on a camera-only approach, as opposed to competitors using lidar, radar and cameras for driverless capabilities.

The agency has previously investigated earlier versions of Smart Summon, which is meant to let a Tesla vehicle park itself or fetch a driver via remote app command.

The “Actually Smart Summon” feature enables drivers to remotely summon or move their vehicles to them or another location via a mobile phone app.