The NHTSA has proven no indicators of backing down, overseeing three new remembers of Tesla automobiles since Trump took workplace, most just lately ordering 46,000 Cybertrucks to be checked after discovering an exterior panel was liable to falling off due to defective glue.
Of its eight energetic investigations into Tesla automobiles, 5 concern Musk’s claims concerning the capabilities of the corporate’s Autopilot driver-assistance system and its FSD software program—central guarantees of Tesla’s worth proposition and the topic of 1000’s of shopper complaints.
The company has obtained a median of 20 per 30 days on FSD because the software program was launched, in accordance with an FT evaluation of greater than 10,000 complaints.
A pointy rise in complaints about so-called “phantom braking” at the beginning of 2022 triggered one of many investigations. In a single, a couple of mid-October 2024 incident, a Tesla Mannequin 3 in FSD instantly stopped in entrance of a automotive that will have crashed into it had the Tesla driver not taken again management of the automobile and accelerated.
“Software program is so removed from being able to be safely used,” the Mannequin 3 driver mentioned within the grievance.
Whereas a number of Tesla tech updates prior to now two years have lowered complaints about braking glitches, different software program points persist. The FT evaluation, which used synthetic intelligence to categorize complaints, exhibits errors linked to driver-assist instruments reminiscent of FSD and Autopilot nonetheless make up a big share of complaints made towards the corporate prior to now yr.
In February, the motive force of a 2024 Cybertruck reported that FSD disengaged with out warning, inflicting the automobile to instantly speed up and practically collide head-on with one other automotive. The proprietor mentioned they contacted Tesla service however the automobile was neither inspected nor repaired.
Former Apple govt Jonathan Morrison has been nominated by Trump because the NHTSA’s subsequent administrator and should discover a strategy to navigate the company by means of the perceived conflicts of curiosity with Musk, with out being accused of stifling AV innovation.
“Elon has performed a variety of actually attention-grabbing issues with tech that have been considered not possible,” mentioned one former prime NHTSA official.
“What considerations me is that Tesla isn’t identified for taking a gradual and methodical method; they transfer quick and break issues, and persons are in danger due to that. There have been preventable deaths, so it’s a right away concern for us.”
© 2025 The Monetary Instances Ltd. All rights reserved. To not be redistributed, copied, or modified in any approach.
