According to three people familiar with the situation, Tesla Inc is under criminal investigation in the United States for making claims that its electric vehicles can drive themselves.
The US Department of Justice launched the previously unknown investigation last year in response to more than a dozen crashes, some of which were fatal, involving Tesla’s driver assistance system Autopilot, which was activated during the accidents.
Tesla’s marketing materials bragged about Autopilot’s capabilities as early as 2016. Elon Musk, the Silicon Valley automaker’s CEO at the time, described it as “probably better” than a human driver during a conference call that year.
On another call last week, Musk stated that Tesla would soon release an upgraded version of its “Full Self-Driving” software, allowing customers to travel “to your work, your friend’s house, or the grocery store without you touching the wheel.”
According to a video on the company’s website, “the person in the driver’s seat is only there for legal reasons.” He is not acting in any way. “The car drives itself.”
However, the company has explicitly warned drivers that while using Autopilot, they must keep their hands on the wheel and maintain control of their vehicles.
The Tesla technology is intended to help with steering, braking, speed, and lane changes, but the company’s website states that its features “do not make the vehicle autonomous.”
According to the sources, such warnings could complicate any case the Justice Department wishes to bring.
Tesla, which shut down its media relations department in 2020, did not respond to Reuters’ written questions on Wednesday. Musk did not respond to written requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Justice Department declined to comment.
In an interview with Automotive News in 2020, Musk stated that Autopilot issues stem from customers using the system in ways that contradict Tesla’s instructions.
Federal and California safety regulators are already investigating whether claims about Autopilot’s capabilities and design instill customers with a false sense of security, leading them to treat Teslas as truly driverless cars and become complacent behind the wheel, potentially leading to fatal consequences.
According to people familiar with the investigation, the Justice Department investigation may represent a more serious level of scrutiny due to the possibility of criminal charges being filed against the company or individual executives.
Sources say Justice Department prosecutors in Washington and San Francisco are investigating whether Tesla misled consumers, investors, and regulators by making unsubstantiated claims about the capabilities of its driver assistance technology.
Officials conducting the investigation said they could eventually file criminal charges, seek civil sanctions, or close the investigation without taking any action.
According to one of the sources, the Justice Department’s Autopilot investigation is far from recommending any action, in part because it is competing with two other DOJ investigations involving Tesla. According to this source, investigators still have a lot of work to do and no decision on charges is imminent.
The Justice Department, say sources, may face difficulties in building its case because of Tesla’s warnings about overreliance on Autopilot.
For example, after telling investors on a call last week that Teslas would soon be able to travel without human intervention, Musk later clarified that the vehicles still required a human driver. “Like we’re not quite ready to have no one behind the wheel,” he said.
Before enabling Autopilot, the driver must agree to “keep your hands on the steering wheel at all times” and to always “maintain control and responsibility for your vehicle,” according to the Tesla website.
Barbara McQuade, a former US attorney in Detroit who prosecuted automotive companies and employees in fraud cases and is not involved in the current investigation, said investigators would most likely need to unearth evidence such as emails or other internal communications demonstrating that Tesla and Musk purposefully misrepresented Autopilot’s capabilities.
MANY PROBES
The criminal Autopilot investigation is in addition to the other investigations and legal issues involving Musk, who was embroiled in a court battle earlier this year after abandoning a $44 billion takeover of social media giant Twitter Inc, only to reverse course and express excitement about the impending acquisition.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched an investigation into a series of crashes, one of which was fatal, involving Teslas equipped with Autopilot slamming into parked emergency vehicles in August 2021.
In June, NHTSA officials expanded their investigation into 830,000 Teslas equipped with Autopilot, identifying 16 crashes involving the company’s electric vehicles as well as stationary first-responder and road maintenance vehicles. The move is a prerequisite for regulators to request a recall. The agency did not respond immediately.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles accused Tesla of falsely advertising its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving capability as providing autonomous vehicle control in July of this year. Tesla has requested a hearing on the allegations and has stated that it intends to defend against them. The DMV stated in a statement that the case is currently in the discovery stage and declined further comment.