U.S. opens investigation into 830,000 Tesla vehicles, focusing on Autopilot

Electric Wheelco reported on June 9 that the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) launched an
investigation into 830,000 Tesla vehicles, focusing on its self-driving feature
Autopilot.

The auto safety agency conducted
an initial assessment of 765,000 vehicles last August to assess the system\’s
performance after a series of Tesla crashes. NHTSA has now upgraded the
investigation to an engineering analysis, a necessary step before it seeks a
mandatory recall.

Last week, the U.S. auto safety
regulator announced in its latest regulatory filing that it would step up its
investigation into Tesla. Previously, the agency received 758
complaints of what\’s known as \”phantom braking,\” when Tesla
vehicles brake suddenly at high speeds.

The number of \”phantom
braking\” complaints from owners of Tesla vehicles produced in 2021 and
2022 rose to 758 from 354 in February, regulatory filings show,
prompting the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to request
Tesla have until  June 20 to respond to this. The automaker faces
a fine of up to $115 million if it doesn\’t respond promptly.

It is reported that the
investigation involves about 416,000 vehicles in the Models 3 and Models Y
models, and there have been no reports of crashes or injuries due to the
above-mentioned braking problems. The vehicles are equipped with partially
automated driver-assist features such as adaptive cruise control and Autopilot,
which enable them to automatically brake and steer within their lanes.

But NHTSA said in documents
released that the vehicles may brake unexpectedly at high
speeds. \”Complainants report that sudden decelerations and braking
can occur without warning and tend to occur repeatedly within a single driving
cycle,\” the agency said. A rear-end accident occurred on the road.

The investigation is the latest
in a series of investigations by U.S. auto safety regulators into Tesla
vehicles, including Tesla\’s driver-assistance system Autopilot and its advanced
version of its \”Full Self-Driving\” (FSD) software. Despite the
misleading names, neither software actually enables autonomous vehicles to
drive without the supervision of a human driver.

This is the fourth formal
investigation into Tesla by U.S. regulators in the past three years. NHTSA
is overseeing 15 Tesla recalls since January 2021. In addition, since
2016, the agency has sent investigators into at least 33 crashes involving
Tesla owners turning on Autopilot, in which 11 people have been killed.