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Tesla is facing an investigation from federal safety regulators into whether it delayed notifying the government about crashes involving its driver assistance technology.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is looking into whether or not the company is complying with regulations requiring it to report data about crashes involving its cars when they are using certain driver assistance features. In a federal filing released Wednesday, NHTSA said that “reported crashes occurred several months or more before the dates of the reports. The majority of these reports involved crashes in which … the time required a report to be submitted within one or five days of Tesla receiving notice of the crash.”
Many Tesla vehicles come equipped with Autopilot, a system designed to help drivers on limited access highways, and the company’s so-called “Full Self Driving” feature, which is supposed to be able to guide cars on both city streets and highways.
Both features are only supposed to be used with a person in the driver’s seat who is paying attention and can take control of the car.
While NHTSA has numerous ongoing investigations into Tesla and the safety of its autonomous vehicle efforts, the latest investigation is the first probe launched since President Donald Trump returned to office. It also could be seen as another blow to Tesla’s bet that its autonomous vehicle technology will be central to its future growth and profitability.
Investors had believed that the Trump administration would be advantageous for Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s self-driving ambitions, possibly even spelling the end of existing safety investigations into the company. Musk devoted hundreds of millions of dollars to Trump’s election and served as a significant advisor to Trump after his inauguration. The two have since had a falling out, however.
NHTSA said Tesla has indicated it has fixed past problems collecting and reporting the required data. The agency said it plans to audit Tesla data to find out if that is true.
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said in April that his department would be changing the reporting requirements, however, as part of efforts to promote autonomous vehicles.
“We’ve heard from industry partners that crash reporting requirements for automated vehicles is way too expensive,” he said in announcing the department’s AV program. “But these reports help DOT monitor road safety. So to balance these concerns, we’ve streamlined the process.”
Tesla was found liable earlier this month in a fatal 2019 crash of an Autopilot-equipped Model S that hit a parked car, resulting in the death of one of its occupants. The company was ordered to pay $329 million in damages. Tesla has announced plans to appeal.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
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