Regulators are homing in on automatic emergency braking in the investigation.
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Joan Claybrook, president emeritus of Public Citizen and former head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, signed onto the letter, along with the leaders of Consumer Watchdog, Center for Auto Safety and the Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety.
Shares of Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA) fell in after-hours trading on Monday after The Wall Street Journal reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has opened an investigation into whether Tesla violated securities laws by not disclosing a fatal crash involving its Autopilot system to investors. They also asked the company to describe how the system detects how signals from cameras or other sensors have been compromised or degraded and when that information is communicated to the driver.
The crash in Williston killed former Navy Seal Joshua Brown, 40, of Canton, Ohio.
The crash occurred May 7 in Florida while the Tesla was on autopilot mode and failed to see an 18-wheel tractor-trailer crossing the highway. The agency gave Tesla until August 26 to fully comply with its request. “We specifically advise against its use at high speeds on undivided roads”, Tesla said in a statement.
Tesla’s co-founder pushed hard to launch the autopilot feature as soon as possible because “we knew we had a system that on balance would save lives”.
However, Tesla had already warned its customers that the autopilot feature won’t make your vehicle autonomous as you need to have your hands on the steering while it is activated. Tesla was preparing to sell off about $2 billion in stock at the time.
Back in May, Tesla’s Director of Autopilot Programs, Sterling Anderson confirmed that the company has collected 780 million miles worth of Autopilot data and 100 million miles of active Autopilot use, according to a report by Electrek. Since the fatal accident, the company has been thrashed by the media and regulators for launching a system which is still in a beta phase or incomplete. The NTSB, best known for examining airline crashes and train wrecks, has a team of investigators headed to Florida to look into the crash starting Tuesday, said spokeman Christopher O’Neal.
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The NHTSA sends such letters as a part of its safety investigations. It is in the process of developing standards for self-driving cars. Tesla said it alerted NHTSA on 16 May, nine days after the accident, as it conducted its own internal probe into the crash.
