Why does Tesla get so much attention from NHTSA?

[MarkBrokeIt]

https://ktla.com/2019/12/31/feds-investigate-deadly-gardena-crash-involving-tesla/

Plenty of other vehicles have varying levels of automation (like TACC). But stories of crashes with those vehicles don't seem to make the news every day. They only hit the news when there's a major lawsuit/recall. Yet it seems like every individual Tesla crash hits at least the local news, and per the story above, at least 13 have been investigated by NHTSA.

Is there a reason for this NHTSA scrutiny? Is it typical for new automakers? Is there solid evidence of defects in some of the Tesla safety systems?

 

[eye.surgeon]

Possibly in part because the (former) CEO trashes NHTSA publicly and because they have a habit of hiding dangerous defects in their batteries with secret software updates choking their performance rather than reporting the problem to the NHTSA and replacing the batteries as the law dictates.

Love my Model S, but that's reality.

 

[Ostrichsak]

My guess is if you're in the practice of doing some questionable things to your paying customers the likes of which nobody has ever seen prior to the ability to strip functionality via software updates you will get some added attention. Doesn't bother me because if they're doing everything right then the investigation(s) will exonerate them. Only fanbois of the highest order would want them to not even be looked at given this is the first company if it's kind offering something that's the first of it's kind in US history.

 

[omarsultan]

I would imagine after the NHTSA's 2017 findings that AP design contributed to the 2016 accident in Florida, AP is "on probation" and the NHTSA is looking to see if the changes Tesla has made since then are sufficient to mitigate the issues they identified or if they still remain.

IMO, the biggest underlying concern for AP is if the mostly autonomous, kinda-in-charge model is viable. Yes, I know thousands of people successfully use AP every day, but we also have Tesla's running into fire trucks when they were under AP control or the driver thought they were under AP control. I would expect the cumulative impact (forgive the pun) of all these AP accident investigations (IIRC the article said 13) might be new regs.

 

[ewoodrick]

It's a new technology, they are going to watch it to make sure it stays safe.
Other cars get investigated as well, you just don't hear as much about it.
You are aware of any Tesla articles, you watch for them

 

[AMPd]

Possibly in part because the (former) CEO trashes NHTSA publicly and because they have a habit of hiding dangerous defects in their batteries with secret software updates choking their performance rather than reporting the problem to the NHTSA and replacing the batteries as the law dictates.

Love my Model S, but that's reality.

You speak the absolute truth so of course you’ll get a few “disagrees”

https://ktla.com/2019/12/31/feds-investigate-deadly-gardena-crash-involving-tesla/

Plenty of other vehicles have varying levels of automation (like TACC). But stories of crashes with those vehicles don't seem to make the news every day. They only hit the news when there's a major lawsuit/recall. Yet it seems like every individual Tesla crash hits at least the local news, and per the story above, at least 13 have been investigated by NHTSA.

Is there a reason for this NHTSA scrutiny? Is it typical for new automakers? Is there solid evidence of defects in some of the Tesla safety systems?

Stories are published in hopes of clicks and views. Tesla is the new hip company with a lot of attention, stories about tesla will get clicks both from fans of tesla and those who don’t like the company

As far as NHTSA investigations, they investigate lots of car companies but of course you won’t hear about that because again clicks make articles.