The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened its second defect investigation related to Tesla Inc.’s Autopilot, subjecting more scrutiny to the carmaker’s driver-assistance technology.
The agency said Thursday it’s launching a preliminary evaluation of unexpected braking by Tesla Model 3 sedans and Model Y sport utility vehicles. NHTSA estimates that the investigation covers about 416,000 cars and said it has received 354 complaints related to the issue in the past nine months.
The Autopilot probes could pose risk to Tesla’s commercialization of automated-vehicle technology. In the weeks leading up to the company becoming the first carmaker with a $1 trillion market valuation, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk tweeted that investors were giving Tesla “significant credit for achieving self-driving.”
