U.S. authorities responsible for regulating road safety said Friday they are investigating Tesla’s self-driving software system.
The assessment by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) covered 2.4 million Tesla vehicles across multiple models manufactured from 2016 to 2024.
NHTSA’s action is the first step toward a possible recall NHTSA may seek against the company, which is run by tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Tesla did not immediately respond to BBC questions about the investigation on Friday.
NHTSA’s preliminary assessment was based on four crash reports involving the use of Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) software.
According to the agency, the accident occurred due to reduced visibility on the road due to fog and glare from the sun.
According to NHTSA, one of the accidents resulted in a fatality when a Telsa struck a pedestrian, and the other resulted in an injury.
This evaluation is designed to determine whether Tesla’s self-driving system can detect and respond appropriately to reduced visibility conditions. It will also investigate whether other self-driving accidents have occurred under similar circumstances.
The agency noted in the notice that, despite its name, fully autonomous driving is actually a “partial driving automation system."
NHTSA’s announcement comes a week after Musk rolled out the CyberCab in a flashy manner at the Warner Bros. studio lot in Burbank, California.
At the event, Musk said the concept of fully autonomous robotaxis, which operate without pedals or steering wheels, could be on the market by 2027.
However, some analysts and investors were not impressed.
Since Cybercab’s rollout, the company’s stock price has fallen 8%. After the notification from NHTSA, the stock price remained mostly stable.
Unlike Waymo, the self-driving venture run by Google’s parent company Alphabet, Tesla’s self-driving system relies primarily on cameras and artificial intelligence.
Mr. Musk’s approach is cheaper than deploying high-tech sensors such as lidar and radar that are essential to Waymo’s driverless car program.
