• NHTSA has closed an investigation into Tesla’s one-pedal driving.
• A defect investigation from 2023 claimed that the feature was responsible for unintended acceleration.
• The feds say that the feature is not unique to Tesla and isn’t actually a defect.

When moving from an ICE-powered car to an EV, one of the first things to get used to is one-pedal driving. Thanks to the magic of magnets (and regenerative braking), the wasted power normally turned into heat by the friction of brake pads is diverted back into the car’s battery pack, allowing many EVs to stop without you having to hit the brake pedal at all. Unfortunately, it does have a bit of a learning curve for folks who have never used it before.

Tesla, which is just one of the many automakers that employ one-pedal driving, had a run-in with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) over the feature. After a careful review, NHTSA has finally sided with Tesla and closed out its investigation, saving the automaker from potentially needing to issue a recall for more than 2 million cars sold all the way back to 2013. Here’s what happened.

Photo by: Andrei Nedelea

The original concern leading up to the investigation was centered around “pedal misapplication,” which is a polite way of saying that drivers could accidentally confuse the gas pedal with the brake function and yeet themselves into a storefront or stop sign.

This wasn’t a new theory at all. Prior to the defect petition, owners have been theorizing unintended acceleration was due to pedal misapplication for nearly a decade. But the formal petition, which was submitted to the agency three years ago in March 2023, is now closed with a message that officially takes the blame off of Tesla.

According to NHTSA, there are only a handful of crashes potentially liked to the issue. And in those cases, the vehicle logs show that the cars responded correctly to driver inputs—meaning, they went “go” when the pedal was depressed by the driver.

The feds also issued a crucial reminder that one-pedal driving is not unique to Tesla:

The use of regenerative braking controlled by the accelerator pedal, or one-pedal driving, is common across most light vehicle manufacturers of electric vehicles and Tesla vehicles are not unique in this respect.

A denial of the petition means that NHTSA found no evidence in the defect and will end its investigation. And accordingly, it will not move forward with any of the proposed safeguards in the petition, like requiring drivers to actually press the brake pedal to require the car to come to a complete stop.

Chock it up to a win for Tesla. Or, at least a non-loss—Tesla still has 10 NHTSA investigations open into issues like its door controls, steering wheels detaching, unexpected braking, and a separate unintended acceleration issue. 

But really, this is a win for EV owners as a whole. One-pedal driving is a fairly popular feature and, in many cars, can be toggled on or off. Keeping a safe, efficient, and optional control in a vehicle should be seen across the industry as a win for consumer choice. As long as it doesn’t suck, that is.

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The Toyota 4Runner’s lineup expanded with the current generation and now offers a dizzying nine trims, two powertrains, and two four-wheel-drive systems. New for the sixth generation is the Trailhunter, and for many enthusiasts, it’s love at first sight. The Toyota 4Runner Trailhunter’s Snorkel Isn’t Even a Snorkel, So Be Careful

The 4Runner Trailhunter is worth getting excited about; I sure was when it debuted! With 2.5-inch forged ARB Old Man Emu shocks with external piggyback remote reservoirs, and 33-inch all-terrain rubber from the factory, this thing comes packing. It also comes standard with a snorkel, but it’s probably not for what you think.

Up front, Toyota doesn’t even call that thing that comes out of the passenger-side front fender and up the A-pillar a snorkel. The Japanese automaker dubs it a “high-mount air intake.” Looks like a snorkel, right? Maybe, but there’s a big and important difference between a snorkel and a high-mount intake setup.

Confusing the two could be the difference between a fun adventure and a bad day that, at worst, could result in destroying your engine.

A snorkel is a sealed, high-mount air intake system that enables a vehicle to ford deeper water, increasing its ability to breathe higher. The keyword there is sealed, to ensure water doesn’t get into the intake system and drown the engine, which, at worst, could result in a seizure and a rebuild.

Toyota calls it a high-mount air intake because it’s not water-tight. The design simply moves the air intake point of entry higher off the ground, so if you were traversing dusty trails, the air grabbed and sucked into the engine will have a better chance of being clean and free of those dust particles.

Plot twist: The 4Runner TRD Pro, which is meant for going fast over unpaved earth, whereas the Trailhunter is meant for going slow on unpaved earth, does not have a high-mount air intake.

Aside from functional confusion comes livability. The high-mount air intake is loud. Start the 4Runner, and you’ll hear the air suck into that turbo-four hybrid powertrain when the engine starts up. Every time the throttle is applied, a loud whoosh comes online. These noises are more hidden and in the background in other applications, like the 4Runner’s taller, boxier sibling, the Land Cruiser, because the intake is hidden under the hood and behind the firewall. Same deal with every other 4Runner trim, except the Trailhunter.

Look, I adore the fact that the Trailhunter gets skid plates that run from the front bumper back to behind the transfer case. I will tell you the Trailhunter’s suspension and tire pairing make it easily the most comfortable 4Runner out of the box. But whether you want to live with the intake? That’s up to you and whether you and your loved ones are down with the whoosh whoosh noises from the turbo-four. Functionally speaking, it won’t let you go through deeper water or really enhance your off-road experience at all. Buyer beware.

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