The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation Tuesday into 2.6 million Tesla vehicles after learning of a series of crashes linked to the company’s self-driving mobile app.

Officials at the NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation say Tesla’s Actually Smart Summon, a mobile app that lets customers remotely control their vehicle, has been linked to several collisions. 

“The ODI is aware of multiple crash allegations, involving both Smart Summon and Actually Smart Summon, where the user had too little reaction time to avoid a crash, either with the available line of sight or releasing the phone app button, which stops the vehicle’s movement,” investigators said. 

They added that the Tesla vehicles involved in the collisions failed to detect concrete polls or other vehicles while Smart Summon was in use. 

Tesla has not commented on the NHTSA investigation. 

Tesla launched Actually Smart Summon in September and intended it to be an improved version of its original remote driving app: Smart Summon. Tesla has now referred to the original app as “Dumb Summon.”

The NHTSA’s probe will cover how fast cars with Smart Summon can travel on public roads, performance in unexpected situations and the impact of connectivity delays between the smartphone app and the Tesla vehicles. 

This week’s move is in addition to the NHTSA’s investigation into Tesla’s self-driving features. The administration opened a probe into 2.4 million Tesla vehicles in October after receiving several reports of collisions involving the company’s Full Self-Driving software. 

• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.