DOJ seeks Tesla driver-assist documents
STORY: In a sign that regulatory scrutiny is intensifying, Tesla disclosed on Tuesday the U.S. Justice Department has sought documents related to Tesla’s Autopilot systems.
Reuters reported in October Tesla is under criminal investigation over claims that the company's electric vehicles could drive themselves. Reuters said the U.S. Justice Department launched the probe in 2021 following more than a dozen crashes, some of them fatal, involving Autopilot.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has championed Tesla’s Autopilot systems—both Full Self-Driving and driver-assistance -- as innovations that will both improve road safety and position the company as a technology leader.
But, according to testimony by a senior engineer first reported by Reuters earlier this month, a 2016 video that Musk promoted on Twitter as evidence that “Tesla drives itself” was actually staged and that the video showed capabilities -- like stopping at a red light -- that the system did not have.
Regulators are examining if Autopilot's design and claims about its capabilities provide users a false sense of security, leading to complacency behind the wheel with possibly fatal results.
Autopilot is designed to assist with steering, braking, speed and lane changes. The function currently requires active driver supervision and does not make the vehicle autonomous. Tesla separately sells the $15,000 full self-driving software - or FSD - as an add-on that enables its vehicles to change lanes and park autonomously.
The acting chief of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said this month the agency is "working really fast" on the Tesla Autopilot investigation AND said the probe is "very extensive."
