The National Highway Transit Safety Administration (NHTSA), the government agency in charge of regulating vehicle performance and safety standards, launched a probe into Tesla’s insufficient December recall regarding its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software. The announcement of the inquiry comes 1 day after NHTSA concluded its multi-year investigation into Tesla’s FSD feature, which found several severe safety concerns. This increase in regulatory attention on the FSD feature is an overdue win for consumers – the hazardous technology has led to countless serious accidents since 2018, including at least 29 fatal crashes.
Tesla has gained notoriety for continuing to expand access to hazardous systems despite clear and obvious evidence of their catastrophic risks to public safety. As the inquiry details, the names “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving” mislead consumers into expecting the vehicles to operate completely independently, giving rise to “foreseeable driver misuse of the system.” Despite their insinuating names, these features require driver alertness to offset the all-too-common system defects. Tesla’s December recall of over 2 million vehicles was intended to ensure that these features included sufficient safeguards requiring driver attentiveness.
Just 5 months later, it is already clear that this long-awaited FSD recall is drastically insufficient. It does nothing to address NHTSA’s primary concern regarding the lack of night-vision cameras to ensure drivers are paying attention to the road – the agency found that the current system of measuring torque on the steering wheel does not properly monitor attentiveness. Furthermore, if FSD malfunctions, such as if it fails to navigate around an obstacle, it can be complex to disengage. NHTSA also found that the recall may not have been properly installed in all the vehicles it pertained to, as certain details required driver opt-in and could be easily reversed.
Unsurprisingly, this major recall is acting as an attempt to placate government regulators rather than a genuine effort to promote safety and protect the public from experimental technology. Tesla’s disregard for public safety has given rise to immeasurable loss of life and property. The company seems to approach the mounting fatalities due to FSD as the cost of doing business – our team of product defect attorneys is fighting back.
Click to contact our personal injury lawyers today
Tesla’s failure to protect public safety is unconscionable and its victims deserve justice and compensation for their injuries. The team at Arias Sanguinetti | Trial Lawyers is among the leading law firms in the country with regard to bringing justice to victims of Tesla’s negligence. If you have suffered damages of any kind due to a defective Tesla product, contact our team of product defect attorneys today.
