The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ended a year-long review of allegations that some Tesla vehicles were accelerating without warning, saying there is insufficient evidence to open a full investigation. Although NHTSA received 246 complaints about this “sudden unintended acceleration” phenomenon, the agency says that “incorrect pedal application” was the cause of the problem in all cases for which it had data to review – user error, in other words.
“There is no evidence of any failure in the accelerator pedal assemblies, engine control systems or brake systems that contributed to any of the aforementioned incidents,” wrote the agency in a summary published Friday. “There is no evidence of a design factor that contributes to increasing the likelihood of incorrect application of the pedal. The theory provided for a possible electronic cause of SUA in the vehicles in question is based on inaccurate assumptions about the system design and registration data. “
Claims of the so-called “sudden unintended acceleration” have been chasing Tesla for years. The company resolved most of an alleged collective action in 2018 on the issue. NHTSA says it collected accident data and video from “black box” event data recorders for cars and Tesla itself. Although 246 cases were reported, the agency did not specify the number of cases for which it collected data. The problem was thought to affect about 662,000 vehicles across the Tesla line.
The review opened in January 2020 in response to a “defect petition” by Brian Sparks, an investor who was selling Tesla shares (or betting the price would fall). He cornered more than 100 complaints about the matter that had already been submitted to NHTSA, as well as similar events that were covered by the press, and asked the agency to investigate.
“I believe that Tesla vehicles have a structural flaw that puts their drivers and the public at risk. Furthermore, I believe Tesla should know about this flaw and not respond to it, ”he wrote in December 2019. Sparks also questioned Tesla’s reluctance to provide owners with data on these acceleration events. “This petition will show that, based on publicly available information, it appears that Tesla vehicles have an unexpected and involuntary acceleration problem and Tesla should know about that problem.”
Tesla responded to the analysis with a blog post that claimed the idea had no merit. “We investigated all incidents where the driver claims that his vehicle accelerated as opposed to his entry and, in all cases where we had vehicle data, we confirmed that the car worked as designed,” wrote the company.
In a message to The Verge on Friday, Sparks said: “The rate of involuntary acceleration reporting remains particularly high on vehicles made by Tesla compared to other vehicles, however, I trust government institutions. If NHTSA says there is no defect, then I believe them. I am grateful to NHTSA for evaluating SUA’s claims. “