The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sent a letter to Tesla on October 24, 2019. That’s because it wants to know more about its cars suddenly bursting into flames occasionally. These may happen after collisions or even spontaneously. Therefore, the NHTSA has concerns about these incidents and needs questions answered.
The NHTSA Has Concerns About High-Voltage Battery Fires
ABC News reports the investigation will likely center around battery-management software updates between 2012 and 2019. Apparently its letter mentions an “alarming number of car fires that have occurred worldwide”. Moreover, the NHTSA has concerns about both Model S and Model X vehicles too.
The letter that went to Al Prescott, Deputy General Counsel and Director of Regulatory Affairs was furthermore quite specific. It wants more information about Tesla battery fires that did not spark after a collision or impact to a battery pack. Moreover, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wishes to consult all present and past employees who worked on the battery management system.
This Is a Far-Reaching and Comprehensive Investigation
The Administration wants to speak to every employee. or officer involved. This could relate to design, engineering, analysis, modification, production, testing, assessment, or evaluation of the software.
It also wants to speak to all people “who had consideration or recognition of potential actual defects through forums such as field reports or complaints. Or who furthermore had communication to or from zone representatives, dealers or other field locations.” Therefore, Tesla could be between a rock and a hard place, especially because several more vehicles had fires in the past few months.
Moreover, Tesla must comply by November 28, 2019. Or pay a fine as high as $111.6 million dollars because when NHTSA has concerns it expects action. The petitioner requesting the information represents a plaintiff in a class action law suit in the Northern District of California.
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