NHTSA’s Probe Into Tesla’s Driver Assistance System Intensifies — Here’s What You Need To Know

The US Government is deepening its investigation into Tesla's driver assistance system.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently upgraded its investigation to an Engineering analysis to determine if Tesla's driver assistance system, more commonly known as its self-driving system, is potentially "defective."

The investigation's upgrade follows the addition of almost 200 new crashes presumably caused by Tesla's self-driving system, per Business Insider.

NHTSA Investigation Upgrade Details

The NHTSA mentioned in its announcement that it is now reviewing data from 830,000 Tesla cars and 201 new cases of collisions that involved Tesla cars with the Autopilot function operating.

The NHTSA has been investigating Tesla's self-driving system since August 2021. During that period, the Administration discovered that Tesla's warning system activated most of the time just before the car's impact and that the Automatic Emergency Braking system was engaged in about half of the crashes being investigated.

The Administration mentioned that Tesla's self-driving system transferred control to the driver less than one second before the first impact on the crashes' average.

Due to these findings, the NHTSA is intensifying its investigation of Tesla's self-driving system to an Engineering analysis to extend the investigation's crash analysis, evaluate additional data sets, and perform vehicle evaluations.

The extension would also explore the degree to which Tesla's self-driving system and other associated systems may have aggravated "human factors or behavioral safety risks" by undermining the effectiveness of the driver's supervision.

An Engineering Analysis is a necessary step before a possible recall of the cars that come with the Autopilot function.

The NHTSA also reminded the public that no vehicle in the market is fully automated or "self-driving," as Tesla puts it.

Tesla has yet to address the investigation's expansion.

Tesla's Self-Driving System Details

Tesla's self-driving system is a feature available to Tesla cars whose owners have paid a fee to have it installed, per CNN. It allows a Tesla car to use the cameras around the car to "see" the cars and round around it, and drive itself to some degree, per Tom's Guide.

Tesla mentioned that the feature is currently in beta mode, but the company's CEO, Elon Musk, says that the actual autonomous driving, or having the car drive on its own without a driver's supervision, will be coming in the future.

Contrary to its name, Tesla's self-driving system doesn't actually let the car drive by itself. the NHTSA classified Tesla's cars and its self-driving system as having a level 2 vehicle autonomy under the six-level driving automation scale provided by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE).

Under the second level of the SAE's driving automation scale, vehicles that have Level 2 automation mean that the vehicle can control both steerings, accelerating, and decelerating, per Synopsis. However, a human in the driver's seat can still take control of the car at any time.

Additionally, the SAE mentioned in its graph that the person in the driver's seat must constantly supervise the car while its autonomous driving feature is engaged to steer, brake, or accelerate as needed to maintain safety.