WASHINGTON — U.S. vehicle safety regulators are requesting information and facts from Tesla Inc. on its Entire Self-Driving beta tests plan and asking irrespective of whether the electric auto maker intends to remember motor vehicles that acquired more than-the-air updates to improved detect unexpected emergency vehicles.
Tesla ought to reply to the company by Nov. 1, or it could experience civil penalties of up to almost $115 million.
In a letter sent Tuesday, NHTSA said it was looking for info on Tesla’s early Oct release of a Complete Self-Driving beta ask for menu alternative for prospects and an update to its Autopilot driver-help process in September that was meant to make improvements to the detection of crisis motor vehicle lights in very low-gentle conditions.
“Any producer issuing an about-the-air update that mitigates a defect that poses an unreasonable hazard to motor car or truck safety is required to timely file an accompanying remember discover to NHTSA,” Gregory Magno, chief of the automobile problems division at NHTSA’s Business of Problems Investigation, wrote in the letter to Eddie Gates, Tesla’s director of discipline top quality.
Amid the requests, NHTSA is asking Tesla to submit a chronology of gatherings and any inside investigations that led to its deployment of the update and a list of motor vehicles that acquired it. NHTSA also is asking whether Tesla intends to file a security remember covering those people vehicles.
The company is asking Tesla for an assessment of any improvements to incident timing or end result had the unexpected emergency-gentle detection update been operational in the 12 Tesla crashes involving Autopilot and 1st-responder scenes less than investigation by NHTSA.
Federal regulators in August opened an investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot manner soon after a series of collisions with initially-responder autos wherever the driver-assist system was engaged. NHTSA’s safety probe handles an approximated 765,000 Teslas from the 2014 to 2021 product a long time. Most of the crashes occurred immediately after darkish and in whole resulted in 17 accidents and a single loss of life.
The agency also is searching for details on Tesla’s standards and timeline for enabling entry to shoppers who have asked for consideration in the Full Self-Driving beta request approach.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Monday that the newest variation — beta 10.2 — will be available to individuals with safety scores of 100 and who have pushed far more than 100 miles. Contributors should concur to enable Tesla assess their driving actions for a 7 days.
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving expands the Autopilot manner by which includes much more state-of-the-art driver-aid capabilities, but drivers need to continue to be entirely engaged in the driving endeavor. No automaker sells a self-driving vehicle to the community today.
