Tesla has reached another roadblock as safety officials claim the EV automaker has not always followed procedure when reporting crashes involving its vehicles.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a new investigation regarding the way Tesla reports crashes that involve its advanced driver assistance systems, according to Electrek.
The publication reported that automakers are required to report crashes involving the systems to the NHTSA within five days. However, the federal agency claimed Tesla waited months to report accidents in some cases. In response, Tesla said there was a problem with its systems that has since been resolved.
“Even if Tesla figures out the technical problems related to FSD (they won’t), the key to market adoption is consumer trust,” a top commenter wrote, reflecting upon how news stories like this one do not help the brand in this area.
This isn’t the only NHTSA probe involving the EV automaker. Earlier this year, safety officials launched an investigation into safety concerns involving Tesla Robotaxis.
The Tesla probe is the latest in a series of setbacks for the EV automaker. Sales have dwindled for the company with numbers declining by 13.5% in Q2. Now, Tesla has increased prices for some of its more popular models.
Per InsideEVs, Tesla has raised prices for its Model S and Model X in the last month. While the price increase comes with additional features, the move makes Tesla ownership less accessible for customers and could impact the adoption of eco-friendly vehicles.
While generating electricity to charge EVs can create carbon pollution, the vehicles have a smaller carbon footprint than gas-powered cars, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The planet-friendly vehicles have zero tailpipe emissions which means less heat-trapping pollution emitted into the atmosphere — especially when charged through solar panels.
With federal EV tax incentives set to expire at the end of September, consumers seem to be taking advantage while they can. According to Cox Automotive, the EV market boosted new vehicle sales in both July and August. In fact, July had the second-highest monthly EV sales on record.
In addition to the tax credit, drivers who make the switch to an EV wind up saving money in the long run too. EV owners save hundreds of dollars a year on gas and maintenance, per the Natural Resources Defense Council. And as mentioned above, if solar panels are used, charging becomes even cheaper since the electricity is effectively free from the sun once the panels pay for themselves. TCD partner EnergySage advises installing soon if on the fence since it can help customers claim up to around $10,000 in federal tax incentives if a project is fully installed by Dec. 31.
