US prosecutors are investigating whether Tesla Inc. made misleading claims about the capabilities of its Autopilot driver assistance system, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The Justice Department’s Washington and San Francisco offices are probing statements by the electric car company and its executives about Tesla automobiles’ ability to drive themselves, said the person who asked not to be named discussing the investigation. The Justice Department declined to comment and Tesla representatives didn’t immediately respond to requests to comment on the probe, which was first reported by Reuters.
Tesla has faced increasing scrutiny from US regulators over the safety of its automated driving systems and is poised for its first jury trial in February over a driver fatality blamed on Autopilot. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been investigating the feature and has demanded answers from the company on how it’s monitoring and enforcing driver engagement and attentiveness, including its use of in-car cameras.
The Justice Department’s criminal probe remains ongoing and may not lead to charges being brought. The investigation began last year, according to the person.
Meanwhile, the feature has been an important part of the company’s marketing materials and a boon to campaigns to attract customers.
In June, Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk told a Tesla owners club that solving full self-driving technology is “really the difference between Tesla being worth a lot of money and being worth basically zero.”
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