Tesla is once again in the crosshairs of the US government. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the federal agency responsible for road safety, has in fact sent a 14-page letter requesting information to the manufacturer, in order to find out more about the braking faults of its electric vehicles.
The NHTSA claims to have received 758 testimonials from owners of Tesla vehicles about untimely braking. This figure was 350 last February.
Model 3 and Y are affected
In this context, the agency has decided to initiate an investigation concerning 416,000 vehicles: all Model 3 and Model Y sold between 2021 and 2022. Thus, it asks Tesla to provide it with all the reports that have been communicated to it concerning accidental braking, as well as reports of accidents, injuries, fatalities and property damage claims.
” Complaints allege that when using Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) features, including adaptive cruise control, the vehicle brakes unexpectedly while traveling at highway speeds. Complainants report that rapid deceleration can occur without warning, randomly, and often repeatedly within a single drive cycle “says an NHTSA report.
Moreover, the organization also wants to know if Full Self-Driving (FSD), Tesla’s advanced automatic driving device, and the automatic emergency braking system were activated during these incidents. As a reminder, the FSD was already targeted by the government agency in November 2021.
Tesla is not unanimous with regulators
As specified The Verge, reports of hard braking first surfaced last fall, when Tesla was forced to cancel the 10.3 version of the Full Self-Driving beta. While testimonials of sudden braking had already emerged, they skyrocketed after this maneuver by the company.
In addition, Tesla decided last year to abandon the radar sensors on its Model Y and 3 in order to rely solely on the on-board cameras of the two vehicles; this highly criticized choice could also explain the brake problems encountered by the brand’s cars.
Tesla has already had to recall 54,000 vehicles in February because of a feature preventing them from stopping completely at stop signs. The firm has been in the sights of regulators for quite some time, in particular because of its Full Self-Driving system which is tested by drivers even though it is not fully completed.
While Musk promises that eventually his vehicles will be 100% autonomous, he recalls that for the moment, the FSD does not allow fully autonomous driving, although its name may suggest otherwise.
Sources: The Verge, Associated Press
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