By Michael Elkins
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced Thursday that it would be upgrading its probe into Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) to include 830,000 vehicles with Full Self-Driving systems, almost everything that Austin, Texas-based Tesla has sold in the U.S. since the start of the 2014 model year.
The agency says the investigation will evaluate additional data, vehicle performance and “explore the degree to which Autopilot and associated Tesla systems may exacerbate human factors or behavioral safety risks undermining the effectiveness of the driver’s supervision.”
A preliminary investigation began in August to assess the performance of the system in 765,000 vehicles after a series of crashes involving stopped emergency vehicles. The investigation has evolved into an engineering analysis, a required step before potentially seeking to compel a recall.
NHTSA has opened special investigations into 35 crashes since 2016 involving Tesla vehicles in which advanced driver assistance systems were suspected of being in use. To date, 14 deaths have been reported in those incidents, including three who were killed in a California crash last month.
According to the original NHTSA report, most incidents took place after dark, and the crash scenes encountered included scene control measures such as first responder vehicle lights, flares, an illuminated arrow board, and road cones.