San Francisco (Reuters) – The U.S. safety regulator stated on Wednesday that it’s reviewing shopper complaints that Tesla autos are activating the brakes unnecessarily, within the newest regulatory scrutiny of Tesla’s automobile safety.
In May, Tesla chief government Elon Musk stated dropping a radar sensor from its partially automated driving system would deal with the so-called “phantom braking” difficulty, which some Tesla drivers have lengthy complained about.
The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that proprietor stories of phantom braking to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) rose to 107 complaints previously three months, in contrast with solely 34 within the previous 22 months.
“NHTSA is conscious of complaints acquired about ahead collision avoidance and is reviewing them by way of our risk-based analysis course of,” a NHTSA spokesperson stated in an announcement.
“If the info present {that a} danger could exist, NHTSA will act instantly.”
In October, Tesla recalled practically 12,000 autos over a model of its Full Self-Driving beta software program that precipitated pointless braking or false collision warning.
Tesla stated that false braking will increase “the chance of a rear-end collision from a following automobile,” including that it’s not conscious of crashes or accidents associated to this situation.
The NHTSA has been additionally investigating Tesla’s superior driver assistant system following automobile crashes involving emergency autos, whereas probing Tesla’s determination to permit video games to be performed on a automobile display screen whereas a automotive is shifting. Tesla later dropped the gaming characteristic.
Tesla lately recalled 53,822 U.S. autos with the corporate’s Full Self-Driving Beta software program which will permit some fashions to roll by way of cease indicators, posing a safety danger.
Tesla was not instantly accessible for feedback.
(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin and David Shepardson; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
