Tesla Just Legalized Texting While Drivin Except Every State Says It’s Illegal
With FSD “text and drive,” Tesla looks to stake a bold claim, but laws, regulators, and safety experts warn the real-world cost could be high
On December 4, 2025, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced via social media that the company’s newest FSD (Supervised) update will allow drivers to text while the car is in motion. According to Musk, the feature is active now, though he was quick to add the caveat that its availability depends on the context of surrounding traffic.
The claim stirred immediate uproar across automotive safety circles, regulators, and among drivers themselves. Texting while driving has long been prohibited in nearly every US state, a widespread public-safety measure designed to reduce distracted-driving accidents.
To many, Tesla’s move appears to sidestep those laws, and, more worryingly, to underplay the serious risk that comes when human attention is divided between the road and a phone screen.
When Code Collides With Law
As of 2025, nearly all US states enforce bans on texting or using a handheld mobile device while driving. Only a tiny handful, at most two states, lack a full texting ban. Meanwhile, dozens of states treat such violations as primary offenses, meaning a driver can be cited for texting even without other traffic infractions.
That legal environment presents a sharp mismatch with Tesla’s new functionality. By enabling drivers to use their phones while the car is driving itself, the company effectively invites use that every state law deems dangerous and unlawful.
Regulators appear to agree, as the US national safety agency, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), is already investigating FSD for reports of red-light and lane-crossing violations under prior versions.
In that context, adding a phone-while-driving feature seems, at best, tone-deaf, unless the company can prove FSD reliably handles every driving scenario, which historically has been a major point of contention.
Promise of Convenience
For proponents of self-driving or assisted-driving technology, Tesla’s move to allow phone use en route promises a future where the car does the heavy lifting, freeing up human drivers to multitask, whether for navigation, messaging, or just entertainment. The commercial appeal is obvious, as who wouldn’t like a car that drives itself while you reply to texts or catch up on messages?
But the real-world consequences are far from trivial, as research on distracted driving repeatedly shows severe risk, with texting, calling, or otherwise manipulating a phone while driving dramatically increasing the likelihood of accidents.
Even if FSD handles many tasks, algorithms, no matter how advanced, have repeatedly shown limitations in edge cases, poor visibility, complex traffic, or unpredictable pedestrians. Meanwhile, laws have not yet caught up to a world of partially autonomous driving, as they are written for human-driven cars, not cars where supervised autonomy diminishes responsibility.
Drivers who use the new texting-while-driving mode may still be subject to state laws, meaning a traffic stop could easily lead to fines, license points, or other penalties, regardless of what the software promises.
Furthermore, liability in accidents becomes murky, as if a crash occurs while a driver is texting under FSD, is the fault theirs, or the automaker’s? Courts, insurers, and regulators will now have to navigate increasingly complicated questions about who takes responsibility.
Innovation or Reckless Disregard?
Tesla has long positioned itself at the frontier of automotive innovation, pushing autopilot, self-driving, and AI-driven mobility, often ahead of regulators and skeptics, and the new texting-while-driving feature continues that trend.
Arguments remain, though, that the company is prioritising marketing headlines over safety fundamentals, effectively treating laws as optional obstacles rather than design constraints. The NHTSA’s ongoing investigations into FSD add weight to such concerns, suggesting automakers must do more than promise self-driving; they must prove it under real-world stress.
Public trust, consumer safety, and the very legitimacy of autonomous-driving technology are now on the line. If this update leads to crashes, fatalities, or high-profile legal cases, the backlash could derail regulatory acceptance across the board.
On the other hand, if Tesla demonstrates flawless performance and convinces regulators to accept its supervised autonomy, it could change expectations for mobility and accelerate the shift from human-driven vehicles to something far more automated.
Watch This Space And Your Mirrors
In the coming months, several key developments will shape whether Tesla’s gamble pays off or crashes under pressure.
State traffic authorities, where laws ban handheld phone use, could begin issuing citations against FSD users, as some may attempt to classify FSD use with a phone in hand as illegal, regardless of the car’s autonomous mode.
The NHTSA’s evaluation of FSD may expand to include whether allowing phone use constitutes a defect or misuse risk, potentially triggering recalls or usage bans, as insurance companies may reevaluate coverage or refuse to insure cars used under text-and-drive conditions.
Moreover, if crashes or legal cases mount, consumer trust in Tesla, and in autonomous-vehicle promises more broadly, could be cut down. Conversely, a string of incident-free FSD-texting journeys may give the company a powerful advantage over rivals.
A Thin Line Between Vision and Liability
At its core, Tesla’s new feature is a statement that we can move beyond human limitations and can reshape what driving means. But aspiration and legality are not the same, as a car that drives itself could feel like freedom, but until laws, regulators, and safety infrastructure catch up, until the mechanics, ethics, and accountability are aligned, that freedom will also remain fragile.
For drivers, regulators, and everyday road users, the message is a sober one, i.e., innovation demands responsibility, and moves that ignore established safety norms run the risk of real human cost.
As Tesla’s FSD “text-and-drive” rolls out to more cars and to more roads, the world will watch closely, because on American highways, the difference between forward-looking technology and reckless innovation may be measured in lives and not merely through lines of code.
