Tesla+Musk
The US Department of Justice is investigating whether Tesla misled consumers and investors by overhyping the capabilities of its autonomous driving feature, Autopilot.
According to Reuters on the 8th(local time), the federal prosecutors are focusing on whether Tesla deceived investors when unveiling its driving assist feature Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) system.
Separately, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating whether Tesla misrepresented the driver support system to investors.
Tesla’s Autopilot and FSD systems assist with steering, braking, lane changes, but are not fully autonomous and require driver attention.
Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, made statements in the past about Autopilot’s capabilities, but there have been hundreds of collisions involving Tesla’s Autopilot, prompting the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to point out a significant safety gap between driver expectations and system performance.
According to NHTSA, this gap has led to misuse of predictable features and preventable accidents.
Reuters first reported in October 2022 that the U.S. prosecutors had launched an investigation into Tesla, and now they are considering specific criminal charges to hold accountable.
Experts say that for prosecutors to file charges against Tesla, they would need to prove that the company intentionally made false statements despite knowing they would harm consumers or investors.
If concrete evidence of wrongdoing does not emerge, prosecutors or the SEC may not pursue criminal prosecution, civil penalties, or any action at all.
