Topline
Federal regulators are pushing Tesla for more information on recent safety changes to the electric carmaker’s Autopilot technology, the latest round of scrutiny for the controversial driver-assistive feature, after the company issued software fixes to over 2 million cars.
Key Facts
In a Monday letter, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration “several concerns” with Tesla’s remedy, including 20 additional crashes since the software update was installed in December.
Investigators also noted one feature of the remedy—which allows drivers to turn Autopilot on and off with a single pull—was not enabled as a default setting in Tesla cars and “can readily be enabled and disabled by the driver.”
The NHTSA is now asking Tesla to provide it with driver data, including the amount of mileage driven by Tesla owners with Autopilot installed since the December update.
The agency is also asking Tesla to determine how many times their vehicles have shown drivers a “Hands-on-Wheel” warning—a notification given to drivers that take their hands off the steering wheel while the feature is engaged (Autopilot users are still required to “take over at any moment,” according to Tesla).
If a driver receives three to five forced Autopilot suspensions after one of these warnings, the feature is suspended for one week—and NHTSA is asking the company to reveal how many suspensions individual drivers have racked up since the update.
If Tesla doesn’t comply with the investigation, the company could face a daily fine of $27,168 per violation, which could add up to a maximum fine of $135 million, according to U.S. law.
News Peg
Tesla’s stock was slightly down about 3% as of 10:30 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, after surging about 15% for its best trading day in two years last week. The electric vehicle manufacturer did not respond to a request for comment from Forbes.
Key Background
On December 13, Tesla recalled over 2 million Model S, Model X, Model 3 and Model Y vehicles after a two-year investigation into the company’s “Autopilot” feature, which found it “may not be sufficient to prevent driver misuse.” As part of the recall, Tesla installed a software update that gives drivers more alerts and checks to make sure they’re paying attention while using Autopilot. According to Tesla, Autopilot is an advanced driver assistance program which still requires drivers to be “fully attentive” with both hands on the steering wheel and does “not make the vehicle autonomous.” Driver assistance programs like Autopilot come standard in many new cars, but Tesla’s feature has been controversial for years, partly due to worries that drivers often treat it like an autonomous system. A Washington Post investigation found that Teslas were involved in 736 crashes while Autopilot was engaged since 2019, resulting in 17 deaths. The NHTSA has also documented over 750 complaints about “phantom braking”—or Tesla vehicles making sudden stops while Autopilot is engaged.
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