‘Critical safety flaw’ between Tesla drivers and systems cited as NHTSA launches recall investigation

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating whether Tesla’s December 2023 recall of more than 2 million vehicles to update Autopilot features after numerous accidents is appropriate.

NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation is launching the investigation after identifying 20 crashes involving Tesla vehicles with updated software, the agency said in documents filed Friday.

After deploying the software updates, “ODI identified concerns related to crash events following the fix and results of preliminary NHTSA testing of the fixed vehicles,” the agency’s filing said.

The agency also completed a nearly three-year investigation that analyzed 956 accidents involving Tesla vehicles through August 30, 2023. Nearly half of the accidents (467) could have been avoided, ODI said, but happened because “Tesla’s weak driver engagement system was not suited to Autopilot’s permissive operating capabilities.”

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During that investigation, the agency found at least 13 crashes “in which one or more people died and many others caused serious injuries in which foreseeable misuse of the system by the driver appeared to play a role,” it said.

Last week, a Tesla driven by someone with Tesla’s beta Full Self-Driving feature reportedly struck and killed a motorcyclist in Washington state. This feature is not a fully autonomous driving mode, but it does more than just autopilot – it navigates curves and stops at traffic lights and signs – while still requiring driver attention.

NHTSA: Tesla Autopilot system has ‘critical safety flaw’

Although they are often referred to as self-driving cars, Teslas actually have driver assistance features that make driving easier, but are not completely automatic. Autopilot uses Tesla’s Traffic Aware Cruise Control, which adapts to the speed of other traffic, and Autosteer, which helps keep the vehicle in its lane, but requires the driver to have their hands on the wheel.

But drivers may be expecting their Tesla to overperform, according to federal regulators.

A “critical safety gap between drivers’ expectations of the operational capabilities (of Tesla’s driver assistance system) and the actual capabilities of the system … led to foreseeable misuse and preventable accidents,” the agency said in its closed investigative report.

In these 467 accidents, alert drivers should have been able to “react or mitigate the accident” in many cases, according to the ODI. In other cases, cars left the road because Autosteer — Tesla’s handy steering-assist feature — was “inadvertently disabled by driver input” or the features were used in “low-traction conditions such as wet roads,” the agency said.

The new investigation will “evaluate the adequacy (of the December 2023 recall), including the significance and extent of Autopilot controls to address misuse, mode confusion, or use in environments for which the system is not designed,” the agency said .

Which Tesla vehicles have been recalled?

When announced in December, the recall affected 2,031,220 vehicles: the 2012-2023 Model S, the Model

In its December 2023 publication of the recall, Tesla stated: “Under certain circumstances, when the Autosteer function is activated and the driver does not have personal responsibility for the operation of the vehicle and is not prepared to intervene when necessary or does not recognize when the Autosteer is disabled or not engaged, there may be an increased risk of an accident.”

The ODI investigation also includes newer models and the Tesla Cybertruck.

Models included in the NHTSA investigation:

• 2024 Tesla Cybertruck

• 2017-2024 Tesla Model 3

• 2021-2024 Tesla Model S

• 2016-2024 Tesla Model X

• 2020-2024 Tesla Model Y

Engine trend: The 2024 Tesla Cybertruck undergoes off-road performance testing

The new investigation comes as Tesla recently announced a first-quarter sales decline and layoffs in Austin and the Bay Area. However, CEO Elon Musk remained optimistic about the company’s self-driving technology and electric cars. And the company is expected to unveil its robotaxi on August 8th.

Reuters reported in October 2022 that Tesla was under criminal investigation over its autonomous driving claims. Tesla said in October 2023 that the Justice Department had issued subpoenas related to its self-driving and Autopilot technology.

Contributors: Emily DeLetter, James Powel, USA TODAY and Reuters.

Follow Mike Snider on X and Threads: @mikesnider & Mikegsnider.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tesla: Self-driving solution for 2 million cars examined by NHTSA