WASHINGTON: The Biden administration's nominee to serve as the top auto safety regulator said Thursday he hopes the agency will soon finish its investigations into crashes involving automated driving systems used in electric vehicles made by Tesla Inc.
Cliff added the agency works closely with automakers on probes."We're gathering data now and we'll determine what those next steps will be," Cliff said.NHTSA in August opened a formal safety probe into Tesla's Autopilot system in 765,000 U.S. vehicles after a series of crashes involving Tesla models and emergency vehicles.
NHTSA in October asked Tesla why it has not issued recalls to address software updates made to its Autopilot driver-assistance system to improve the vehicles' ability to detect emergency vehicles. NHTSA is also separately reviewing 30 Tesla crashes involving 10 deaths since 2016 where it suspected advanced driver assistance systems use.