March 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. auto safety regulator on Friday rejected a petition seeking a sweeping recall of about 2.26 million Tesla vehicles, saying it had found no evidence of a safety-related defect.

A petition in March 2023 alleged Tesla vehicles could increase the risk of pedal misapplication, potentially leading to unintended acceleration due to differences in controls such as one-pedal driving.

NHTSA said it found no evidence of a defect or safety risk, citing very few relevant incidents and data showing vehicles responded as intended.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The petition had called for a recall of all Tesla vehicles produced since 2013 and proposed safeguards such as requiring drivers to apply the brake pedal before stopping.

NHTSA said Tesla's use of regenerative braking, or "one-pedal driving," is common across electric vehicles and not unique to the company.

The agency identified only a handful of crashes potentially linked to the issue and said vehicle data showed cars responded appropriately to driver inputs, adding there was no evidence the proposed fix would have prevented such incidents. It said it would continue to monitor any new safety information.

Meanwhile, the regulator on Thursday escalated its probe into 3.2 million Tesla vehicles with Full Self-Driving (FSD) driver assistance on concerns the system may fail to detect or warn drivers in poor visibility conditions.

NHTSA had first opened a preliminary evaluation into the automaker's FSD software in October 2024 in 2.4 million vehicles. The agency is now opening an engineering analysis, a required step before it can seek a recall.

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)