SpaceX and Tesla CEO and Twitter owner Elon Musk attends the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and start-ups at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 16, 2023.
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Tesla must send a raft of new records to the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration as part of its Autopilot safety investigation or face hefty fines.
if tesla For failing to provide federal agencies with information about its advanced driver assistance systems, which are sold in the U.S. as the Autopilot, Full Self-Driving and FSD Beta options, the company faces “civil penalties of up to $26,315 per day per violation, according to For a series of related routine violations, the maximum fine is $131,564,183,996, according to a letter posted on NHTSA’s website Thursday.
NHTSA launched an investigation into Autopilot safety in 2021 after the agency uncovered a series of accidents in which Tesla vehicles using Autopilot collided with stationary first responder vehicles and road construction vehicles.
To date, none of Tesla’s driver assistance systems are self-driving, nor can the company’s cars act as robo-taxis like Cruise or Waymo. In contrast, Tesla vehicles require the driver to sit behind the wheel, ready to steer or brake at all times. Autopilot and FSD only control braking, steering and acceleration in limited situations.
Among other details, the federal vehicle safety agency wants information on the versions of Tesla software, hardware and other components installed in every car sold, leased or used in the U.S. between the 2014 and 2023 model years, as well as any Tesla vehicles “Date of admission to the ‘Full Self-Driving Beta’ program”.
The company’s FSD Beta includes driver assistance features that have been tested internally but not yet fully tuned. Tesla uses its customers through the FSD Beta program as software and vehicle safety testers, rather than relying on professional safety drivers as is the industry standard.
Tesla has previously voluntarily recalled its cars over Autopilot and FSD Beta issues, promising over-the-air software updates to fix them.
A February 2023 notice on the NHTSA website stated that Tesla’s FSD Beta driver assistance system may “allow the vehicle to engage in unsafe behavior near intersections, such as going straight through an intersection in a turn-only lane, entering a parked vehicle, etc. Not coming to a full stop at a sign-controlled intersection, or entering the intersection with a steady yellow traffic light without appropriate caution.”
According to data tracked by NHTSA, 21 known collisions have occurred Tesla vehicles equipped with the company’s driver-assistance system have had more fatalities than any other automaker offering a similar system.
according to a separate letters On Thursday, NHTSA was also reviewing a petition from a company Automotive Safety ResearcherRonald Belt asked the agency to reopen an earlier investigation to determine the root cause of a “sudden unintended acceleration” incident that had been reported to NHTSA.
During a sudden unintended acceleration event, the driver may accidentally tip the vehicle forward while stopped or traveling at a normal speed, potentially resulting in a collision.
Lars Morawy, Tesla’s vice president of automotive engineering, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
read more NHTSA turns to Tesla A lot of new records are required.