American electric automaker Tesla has no choice but to release everything about its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) software at the request of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
NHTSA remains apprehensive about Tesla’s remedy for the safety recall of 2M+ EVs
The NHTSA wants Tesla to disclose how it developed the remedy in a safety recall of over 2 million electric vehicles equipped with Autopilot in a new probe announced last month. It also seeks to determine how the Musk-led automaker verified whether the recall remedy worked.
The move comes as Tesla failed to satisfy the agency with the recall that resulted from the previous investigation closed in 2023.
The federal highway safety investigators remain apprehensive about whether Tesla’s recall remedy worked, considering the reported 20 post-remedy crashes and “results from preliminary NHTSA tests of remedied vehicles.”
As a result, the NHTSA now aims to reevaluate the situation.
A Carnegie Mellon University professor who studies automated driving safety asserted that the NHTSA supposes Tesla did little to solve software issues.
“It’s pretty clear to everyone watching that Tesla tried to do the least possible remedy to see what they could get away with. And NHTSA has to respond forcefully or other car companies will start pushing out inadequate remedies.”
Phil Koopman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University
About the safety recall
According to the recall filing, the software system controls “may not be sufficient to prevent driver misuse” of the Autosteer feature, increasing the risk of a crash.
Tesla released an over-the-air software update in December 2023 to fix the issue. The remedy was increased warnings to drivers on roads with intersections when using Autopilot to ensure consistent focus and driving responsibility.
Tesla will finally release more extensive info about Autopilot/FSD Tesla
On Tuesday, NHTSA officially sent a new request letter to Tesla demanding extensive information about Autopilot/FSD.
The agency is basically asking Tesla for all data and documents relevant to the above-mentioned systems.
It is indeed a huge hit to the Musk-led company, considering how it has despicably strived to keep these details confidential. It even utilized a loophole to bypass the CA DMV’s self-driving testing program data reporting.
Finally, Tesla will disclose everything as the agency warned of up to $135 million in fines if the company refuses to comply.
You can access the NHTSA’s full request letter to Tesla here:
