The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is concerned about accidents that have occurred since Tesla vehicles were fitted with a software update to increase the safety of the Autopilot system.
of the United States traffic authorities have launched an investigation into whether electric car company Tesla did enough to update the safety of its Autopilot driver assistance system in December.
The US traffic safety agency NHTSA announced the start of the investigation, according to the Reuters news agency, on Friday.
The agency says it is concerned about accidents that have occurred after a software update was installed on vehicles called for maintenance. The agency is also concerned about the preliminary results of the tests it performed on the repaired vehicles.
On Friday, the agency concluded a three-year investigation into Tesla’s driver assistance system. According to Reuters, the investigation revealed security flaws. According to NHTSA, Tesla has made software updates that have allayed some of the agency’s concerns.
Tesla called in more than two million vehicles for maintenance in the United States in December, i.e. almost all Teslas in the United States.
It was the company’s biggest repair call to date. The company said that with a big service call, it wants to wake up drivers to pay attention to safety when drivers use the driving assistant.
The agency’s repair recall investigation concerns Y, X, S and 3 models manufactured between 2012 and 2024 and equipped with a driver assistance system, as well as the Cybertruck model in the United States.
NHTSA began an investigation into Tesla’s driver assistance system in August 2021. The investigation, released Friday, found at least 13 Tesla accidents involving at least one death or serious injury and some form of abuse of the driver assistance system.
The agency is also concerned that the Autopilot name could mislead drivers. NHTSA suspects that the name of the driver assistance system will tempt drivers to over-rely on the automation.
In February consumer organization Consumer Reports found in its tests that the software update of Tesla’s driver assistance system did not sufficiently respond to the safety problems highlighted by NHTSA.
The organization called on NHTSA to demand additional measures from Tesla.