US probes Elon Musk for Tesla self-driving claims

San Francisco, Jan 29

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating self-driving claims made by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

The SEC probe is to determine if the electric car-maker flouted its rules in promoting its full-self driving (FSD) and Autopilot software, reports The Verge.

Musk in November last year said the Tesla FSD beta is available to anyone in North America.

"Tesla Full Self-Driving Beta is now available to anyone in North America who requests it from the car screen, assuming you have bought this option. Congrats to the Tesla Autopilot/AI team on achieving a major milestone!," the Tesla CEO had tweeted.

The rollout of FSD came at a time when Tesla faces a criminal investigation from the US Department of Justice over potentially false claims related to Autopilot, the company's advanced driver assistance system.

In September last year, a Tesla owner sued the electric car maker, saying the company and its CEO are "deceptively and misleadingly" marketing the Autopilot and "Full Self-Driving" software.

Briggs Matsko from California said that he paid a $5,000 premium for his 2018 Tesla Model X to get 'Enhanced Autopilot', which was sold as a precursor to FSD software that now costs $15,000 but is still in the Beta phase.

Moreover, in August, Musk had come under heavy scrutiny on the controversial Autopilot advanced driver assistance system that has allegedly killed many, with both federal and state regulators turning up the heat on the electric car-maker.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) also upgraded its investigation from a preliminary evaluation to an engineering analysis, asking Tesla to answer questions about its cabin camera as part of a probe into 830,000 vehicles that include Autopilot.