Tesla Gets 5-Week Extension in US Probe of Full Self-Driving Traffic Violations

U.S. auto safety regulators have granted Tesla a five-week extension to respond to an investigation into whether its vehicles violated traffic laws while the Elon Musk-led company’s Full Self-Driving system was engaged.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Friday it has extended the deadline for key responses until February 23 after Tesla requested more time to manually review thousands of records to identify incidents that may be relevant.

The probe is part of federal scrutiny of Tesla’s driver-assistance technology as regulators examine claims that vehicles using FSD have committed traffic violations.

NHTSA opened a preliminary evaluation in October and in December sent Tesla a sweeping information request seeking data on consumer complaints, field reports, crashes, lawsuits and internal assessments related to alleged violations involving FSD.

The agency has received 62 complaints and identified additional media and crash reports potentially tied to the issue.

In a January 12 request, Tesla said 8,313 records remained to be reviewed and that it could process about 300 per day.

Tesla has also cited the burden of responding simultaneously to multiple NHTSA investigations, including separate probes into delayed crash reporting and inoperative door handles, saying the volume of requests could affect the quality of its responses.

(Reporting by Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)