Tesla has been given until July 1st to provide information to US regulators about its most sizeable recall to date. The recall was necessitated by crashes resulting from drivers utilising Autopilot. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) disclosed their request for details on Tesla’s website on Tuesday, demanding details about the volume of mileage customers accumulate using the driver-assistance feature, and the frequency of warnings issued to drivers to place their hands on the wheel preceding and succeeding Tesla’s December recall. This request comes one month after the regulatory body announced an inquiry into whether Tesla’s preventative over-the-air software update was adequate, following an additional 20 crashes post-recall.
If Tesla fails to respond satisfactorily and punctually to the NHTSA, the company could incur penalties amounting to as much as $27,168 (€25,183) per day, per violation, with a maximum fine exceeding $135 million.
This request for information signifies a further intensification of the NHTSA’s scrutinisation of Autopilot, which began with a defect investigation in August 2021 in response to accidents involving Teslas and emergency vehicles. During the process of closing that investigation, and the subsequent commencement of the recall query, the NHTSA stated that Tesla’s methods for ensuring driver engagement were insufficient and the system overly lenient, leading to a significant safety discrepancy between driver expectations and Autopilot’s actual functionality.
The NHTSA has initiated over 50 exceptional crash investigations into Tesla vehicles thought to be connected to Autopilot since the start of the Biden administration.
Investigations into the car manufacturer’s driving systems extend beyond the NHTSA. In January 2023, Tesla revealed it had received document requests from the Justice Department in relation to Autopilot, while Bloomberg reported the same month that the Securities and Exchange Commission were probing CEO Elon Musk’s influence over Tesla’s autonomous driving assertions.