US Feds probe Tesla Autopilot crashes, Musk tweet about disabling monitoring alerts

TheUnited States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), on Monday, told reporters that the regulatory body is investigating Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s tweet in the context of at least 14 Teslas crashing into emergency vehicles while using its Autopilot driver assist system. The acting head of NHTSA, Ann Carlson, made the statement whileaddressing the press on the sidelines of an event in Washington.

According to reports, in June 2022, the NHTSA moved up to an engineering analysis amid its ongoing defect probe into at least 830,000 Tesla vehicles with the driver assistance system Autopilot feature in the context of crashes involving parked emergency vehicles. Additionally, forthe past two years, the electric carmaker has been beta-testing its “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) with owners who have not been trained to use the system but are reportedly being actively monitored by the company.

The probe began in August 2021, and the NHTSA’s Carlson said they are “investing a lot of resources”, which includes a lot of “technical expertise, actually some legal novelty and so we're moving as quickly as we can, but we also want to be careful and make sure we have all the information we need.”

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Meanwhile,a tweet from Tesla CEO indicatedthat Tesla might allow some owners testing the “Full Self-Driving” system to disable alerts which remind them to keep their hands on the steering wheel. Subsequently, the regulatory body said they have asked Tesla for additional information on Musk's tweetwhich is now a part of the broader ongoing investigation into the 14 vehicles.

The ongoing investigation is necessary before NHTSA can demand a recall and it also includes a review of whether Tesla vehicles ensure that the drivers are paying attention as they said previously that evidence suggests that the drivers had complied with the electric carmaker’s alert protocols. This has since raised questions about the effectiveness of the company’s alert strategy for its drivers.

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Earlier this year, the electric carmaker also said at least 160,000 of its cars which amount to nearly 15 per cent of all Tesla which is currently on US roads are participating. While the company website says that their cars cannot drive themselves, the “Full Self-Driving” can more or less autonomouslynavigate roads in several instances. However, experts have raised concerns about the system’s errors, said a report by the Associated Press.

The tweet in question was an interaction between Twitter Chief Executive Elon Musk and a user on December 31 about Tesla’s FSD feature, said Carlson confirming that the agency was in discussion with Tesla about the same.

The tweet reportedly suggested that drivers who have used Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” software system for more than 10,000 miles should be able to disable the “steering wheel nag,” an alert which asks drivers to hold the wheel and confirm that they are paying attention.

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In response on the microblogging platform Musk wrote, “Agreed, update coming in Jan.” While there is no clarity on the kind of changes Tesla will make or even disable the “steering wheel nag”. Meanwhile,many have raised concerns about the dangers of disabling such an important feature.

The recently rolled out$15,000 FSD softwareis said to bean add-on software which enables Tesla vehicles to change lanes and park and compliments its “Autopilot” feature. Notably, this is not the first time that Tesla has come under fire for the effectiveness of their safety protocols as the National Transportation Safety Board three years ago also criticised the electric carmaker’s “ineffective monitoring” after its Autopilot software’s involvement in a fatal crash in California, in 2018.

(With inputs from agencies)

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