NHTSA Investigating Tesla Over Recent Elon Musk Twitter Post

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is conducting a thorough investigation into the safety of Tesla’s automated driver-assistant system (FSD) and a recent tweet from CEO Elon Musk has caught the attention of the federal watchdog. The NHTSA is requesting more information from Tesla regarding the tweet, which was made on December 31, 2022.

@WholeMarsBlog wrote to the Tesla CEO on Twitter:

“Users with more than 10,000 miles on FSD Beta should be given the option to turn off the steering wheel nag.”

To which Musk responded:

“Agreed, update coming in Jan”

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1609313412131037193

The NHTSA has been investigating Tesla’s Full Sell Drive (FSD) system since 2021 after a number of reported incidents involving Teslas. On top of this, the National Transportation Safety Board has been investigating the company over the FSD system as well.

The EV maker started beta testing of the FSD mode in September 2021 with some Tesla customers. According to the Tesla website, it is “designed to provide a more autonomous driving experience, yet it still requires a human driver to remain alert at the steering wheel at all times”.

However, since Musk stated in the Twitter post that an update is coming in January when asked about the ability for a driver to turn off the notification that tells them to apply pressure to the steering wheel whilst in FSD mode, there is concern from the NHTSA.

According to Gizmodo, a spokesperson from the NHTSA has commented on the recent Tweet saying:

“[The NHTSA] is in contact with Tesla to gather additional information. This issue falls under NHTSA’s ongoing Autopilot investigation, and the agency generally does not comment on open investigations.”

There have not been any formal statements or announcements from Tesla regarding updates to the FSD mode at this time.