By Dean Seal


Federal auto-safety regulators have opened an investigation into the adequacy of Tesla's December recall of 2 million vehicles equipped with Autopilot controls.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Friday that it launched the probe after its Office of Defects Investigation identified concerns from post-recall remedy crash events and results from preliminary tests the agency performed on remedied vehicles.

Tesla issued the recall to address a previous NHTSA investigation into whether the Autopilot program contained a defect that created an unreasonable risk to vehicle safety. The agency said it identified at least 13 fatal crashes and more involving serious injuries in which Autopilot played an apparent role.

The resulting recall impacted more than 2 million Model Y, X, S, 3 and Cybertruck vehicles made since 2012 that were equipped with Autopilot.

Tesla set out to update the Autopilot software and install new safeguards to prevent driver misuse.

In its latest report, NHTSA took issue with Tesla's statements that a portion of the recall remedy required opt-in from the owner and could be reversed at the driver's discretion. It also flagged Tesla's deployment of supposedly non-remedy updates to address issues that appear related to concerns the NHTSA raised in its initial Autopilot investigation.

"This investigation will consider why these updates were not a part of the recall or otherwise determined to remedy a defect that poses an unreasonable safety risk," the agency said.

Tesla didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Since the Autopilot update was rolled out, regulators have received an unusually high number of complaints about changes made to the controls. Some drivers say warnings have become excessive and are triggered when performing routine tasks.

Tesla has been beset with safety setbacks recently. Earlier this year, Tesla issued a recall for nearly all of its electric vehicles sold in the U.S. due to the font for some visual warning lights being too small.


Write to Dean Seal at dean.seal@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-26-24 0747ET