Tesla faces US auto safety probe for slow reporting in self-driving tech crashes

US federal auto safety regulators are investigating why Tesla has repeatedly broken rules requiring it to quickly tell them about crashes involving its self-driving technology.

It’s potentially significant development given the company’s plans to put hundreds of thousands of driverless cars on US roads over the next year.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Thursday that Tesla’s reports on numerous incidents involving its driver assistance and self-driving features were submitted far too late — several months after the crashes, instead of within five days as required.

The probe comes two months after the electric vehicle maker run by Elon Musk started a self-driving taxi service in Austin, Texas, with hopes of soon offering it nationwide.

The company also hopes to send over-the-air software updates to millions of Teslas already on the road that will allow them to drive themselves.

Investors enthusiastic about such plans have kept Tesla stock aloft despite plunging sales and profits due to boycotts over Musk’s support for US President Donald Trump and far-right politicians in Europe.

The safety agency said the probe will focus on why Tesla took so long to report the crashes, whether the reports included all the necessary data and details and if there are crashes that the agency still doesn’t know about.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment, but the agency noted that the company has told it the delays were “due to an issue with Tesla’s data collection,” which Tesla says has now been fixed.

The new investigation follows another probe that began in October into potential problems with Tesla’s self-driving technology in foggy weather and other low-visibility conditions, which has been linked to several accidents including one death.

That probe involves 2.4 million Tesla vehicles.

The crash reporting rule for vehicles using level two driver-assistance software, or those that require drivers to pay full attention to the road, was implemented in 2021.

Since then, Tesla has reported 2308 crashes when the software was used, the vast majority of the more than 2600 reported by all automakers, according to agency data.

The numbers are skewed by the fact that Tesla is by far the dominant maker of partial self-driving vehicles in the US

The company has been offering robotaxi rides in Austin to only a select group of riders, but said it will allow any paying customer to hail its cabs starting sometime in September, according to a Musk post on X earlier this month.

Tesla has also begun allowing limited robotaxi service in San Francisco with a driver behind the wheel as a safety check to conform with California rules.

Investors in Tesla were initially cheered after Trump won the presidency in hopes he would reward his biggest financial backer, Musk, by getting safety regulators to go easier on the company.

Now that isn’t so certain given Musk’s falling out with the president in recent months after Musk called Trump’s budget bill an “abomination” that would add to US debt and threatened to form a new political party.

Tesla stock fell less than 1.0 per cent in afternoon trading on Thursday to $US321 ($A500).