The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is seeking responses for an ongoing probe into 830,000 Tesla cars and the electric car maker’s advanced driver assistance system Autopilot.
Reuters cited a letter from the US car safety regulator sent to Tesla on July 3 seeking updates to questions it had asked back in August 2022. The NHTSA is now demanding answers by July 19, according to the news agency.
If Tesla doesn’t supply the agency with the requested records, it faces civil penalties of up to $26,315 per violation per day, with a maximum of $131,564,183 for a series of daily violations, warned the NHTSA letter.
Tesla has not commented so far on the NHTSA warning shot.
The agency initiated an investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot safety in 2021 after it identified a string of crashes in which Tesla cars using Autopilot had collided with stationary first responders’ vehicles and road work vehicles.
“To date, none of Tesla’s driver assistance systems are autonomous, and the company’s cars cannot function as robotaxis like those operated by Cruise or Waymo,” reported CNBC, while noting that instead, Tesla cars require a driver behind the wheel, ready to steer or brake at any time.
Autopilot and FSD only control braking, steering and acceleration in limited circumstances, said the business news channel.
Tesla's Autopilot is intended to enable cars to steer, accelerate and brake automatically within their lane, while enhanced Autopilot can assist in changing lanes on highways. Tesla's Full Self-Driving Capability Features enables cars to obey traffic signals and stop signs but does not make them autonomous.
Tesla earlier launched voluntary recalls of its cars due to issues with Autopilot and FSD Beta. It also promised to deliver over-the-air software updates that would rectify the plethora of issues.
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