Regulators at the US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) are investigating Tesla’s Autopilot safety fix rolled out earlier this year to determine if it was adequate or if further changes are needed.The agency formally began its query Thursday. It noted that 20 crashes or fires have been associated with Tesla’s Autopilot feature, according to a filing. Tesla’s Autopilot feature was recalled back in December. At the time, Tesla said Autopilot’s “prominence and scope of the system’s controls may be insufficient to prevent driver misuse.” Tesla rolled out a fix in late January intended to reduce driver confusion and improve Autopilot’s controls. But drivers quickly filed complaints to the NHTSA, claiming the updates were worse. “The car is actually now more unsafe and distracting with disruptive beeping and alerts,” one 2023 Tesla Model Y owner said in a complaint filed to the NHTSA earlier this year.The NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation says it’s since “identified concerns due to post-remedy crash events and results from preliminary NHTSA tests of remedied vehicles,” meaning crashes where Autopilot was used have occurred since the fix was issued. This also means that the NHTSA has tested Tesla vehicles with the recall fix and are unsure if it’s acceptable. Tesla drivers also have to opt-in to the recall fix in order for their vehicles to be updated and the fix can be undone, according to the car company. The NHTSA also says Tesla has pushed out other updates the agency believes are related to Autopilot’s issues and wants to know why Tesla didn’t clearly state that such updates were related to the recall.
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Earlier this month, Tesla settled a lawsuit over a fatal crash where Autopilot was used, paying the family of the deceased an undisclosed amount.In addition to recalling its Autopilot feature, Tesla previously recalled almost every vehicle it’s ever sold in the US due to a warning light issue. Just last week, it recalled all its Cybertrucks due to an accelerator pedal issue where the pedal cover could slip off and become wedged in the vehicle’s interior trim while driving, making it difficult to safely stop the vehicle. Cybertruck drivers have since started getting their pedal covers screwed onto their accelerators to address the issue.
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