The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the Tesla cars operating in the “Actually Smart Summon” mode were reported to be unable to detect posts or parked cars.

The feature is in place on nearly 2.6 million cars made by Tesla since 2016, including its Model S sports car, Model 3 sedan, and Model X and Y sports utility vehicles.

Tesla did not immediately comment.

Boss Elon Musk has previously been an outspoken defender of Tesla’s push into self-driving, arguing that it is more safe than regular driving and represents the future of transportation.

NHTSA said in this case, at least four crashes had been reported involving the Actually Smart Summon technology, which the company released in September and allows drivers to move their cars using their phones.

The agency said it was also aware of about a dozen other incidents involving its predecessor “Smart Summon”.

None of the accidents that sparked this investigation led to injuries, NHTSA said.

But the probe is likely to raise new questions about the automated driving technology Tesla has made available to drivers across its fleet.

The electric car company is also facing NHTSA investigations of its wider autopilot features sparked by accidents, some of them fatal.

This probe is the first step in a process that can lead to a recall.

NHTSA said it would look into how fast cars can go while the Actually Smart Summon feature is in use and what restrictions are in place to prevent drivers from using it on public roads, among other issues.

Tesla’s manual advises drivers that Actually Smart Summon is intended for use in private, familiar areas, like driveways and recommends a clear line of sight between the driver and the car.

It also says that Actually Smart Summon will be disabled on public roads.

The notice of the probe comes just weeks before Donald Trump, a close ally of Mr Musk, is poised to enter the White House. He was elected on a campaign platform that included promises to dramatically cut regulation and government spending.

By BBC News

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The company says it sold 207,734 EVs in December, taking its annual total to 1.76 million, as subsidies and discounts helped attract customers.

It comes as Tesla is due to announce its own quarterly sales figures later on Thursday.

The US electric car maker maintained a slim lead in EV sales over BYD in the previous quarter but the Shenzhen-based firm has been narrowing the gap.

BYD’s total vehicle sales jumped more than 41% in 2024, year-on-year. The surge was powered mainly by sales of its hybrid cars.

The company has benefited from a rise in car sales in its home market, as intense competition drove down prices and government subsidies encouraged consumers to replace their old cars with EVs or other more fuel efficient options.

BYD sells 90% of its cars in China, where its been extending its lead over foreign brands like Volkswagen and Toyota.

The rise of BYD and other Chinese EV makers contrasts with the challenges faced by some legacy car makers, which have been struggling in major Western markets.

Last month, Honda and Nissan confirmed that they were holding merger talks, as the two Japanese firms seek to fight back against competition from the Chinese car industry.

Also in December, Volkswagen announced it had reached a deal with the IG Metall trade union which will avert plant closures in Germany and avoid immediate compulsory redundancies.

The German motor industry giant had previously warned it might have to shutter plants in the country for the first time in a bid to cut costs.

Earlier in the month, the boss of car making giant Stellantis, Carlos Tavares, quit with immediate effect following a boardroom clash.

His abrupt exit from the company – which owns brands including Vauxhall, Jeep, Fiat, Peugeot and Chrysler – came two months after Stellantis issued a profit warning.

In the third quarter of 2024, BYD saw its revenues soar, beating Tesla’s for the first time.

It posted more than 200bn yuan ($28.2bn, £21.8bn) in revenues between July and September – a 24% jump from the same period last year, and more than Elon Musk’s company whose quarterly revenue was $25.2bn.

However, Tesla still sold more electric vehicle (EVs) than BYD.

Chinese car makers have been trying to boost sales of their EVs outside the country but have faced pushback in some major markets.

In October, European Union tariffs of up to 45.3% on imports of Chinese-made EVs came into force across the bloc.

The US has also imposed a 100% duty on EVs from China and President-elect Donald Trump is expected to impose further tariffs on imports.

Meanwhile, BYD has been expanding its foothold in emerging economies.

Last month, it faced a setback in Brazil – its largest overseas market – with authorities halting the construction of a BYD factory, saying workers lived in conditions comparable to “slavery”.

BYD said it had cut ties with the construction firm involved and remained committed to a “full compliance with Brazilian legislation”.

By BBC News

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The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that Tesla would license xAI’s artificial-intelligence models to help power its driver-assistance software, full self-driving technology and share some of that revenue with the startup, according to the proposed arrangement as described to investors.

“Tesla has learned a lot from discussions with engineers at xAI that have helped accelerate achieving unsupervised FSD, but there is no need to license anything from xAI,” Musk posted late on Saturday on his social media platform X, adding that the report is “not accurate.”

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Mr Musk wants to enable Full Self Driving (FSD) in China and transfer data collected in the country abroad to train its algorithms.

FSD is available in countries including the US but not in China.

The news came after a US report tied Tesla’s autonomous driving modes to at least 13 crashes, involving one death.

During a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Mr Musk was quoted by state media as saying Tesla was willing deep cooperation with China to “achieve more win-win results”.

In response, Mr Li told Mr Musk the Chinese market would “always be open to foreign-funded firms,” according to the reports.

China is Tesla’s second-biggest market. Other carmakers such as Xpeng – headquartered in Guangzhou – have been attempting to compete with Tesla by rolling out similar self-driving functions in their cars.

On Sunday, Mr Musk described Chinese car manufacturers as “the most competitive car companies in the world”.

Tesla has taken previously taken steps to reassure Chinese authorities about the rollout of FSD in the country, including establishing a data centre in Shanghai to process data about Chinese consumers in accordance with local laws.

The trip comes days after the US’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it was investigating whether a recall successfully addressed safety concerns relating to Tesla’s driver assistance system.

The NHTSA said that despite requirements that drivers maintain focus on the road and be prepared to take control at a moment’s notice when autonomous driving was enabled, drivers involved in the crashes “were not sufficiently engaged”. The regulator’s analysis was conducted before a recall Tesla said would fix the issue.

Tesla’s software is supposed to make sure that drivers are paying attention and that the feature is only in use in appropriate conditions, such as driving on highways.

Mr Musk has promised that Teslas will be able to act as autonomous “robotaxis” for years. In 2015, he said Teslas would achieve “full autonomy” by 2018. And in 2019, he said the company would have robotaxis operating by the following year.

This month, the Tesla chief executive said he would reveal the company’s robotaxi in August.

Critics accuse Mr Musk of consistently hyping up the prospects of full autonomous driving to prop up the company’s share price, which has fallen on the back of challenges including falling demand for electric vehicles worldwide and competition from cheaper Chinese manufacturers. Mr Musk denies the accusations.

Tesla has been cutting the prices of its cars in China and other markets to drum up demand.

“Tesla prices must change frequently in order to match production with demand,” Mr Musk recently said on X, the microblogging platform previously known as Twitter which the billionaire owns.

Tesla recently reported a 13% fall in automotive sales to $17.3bn (£13.7bn) for the first three months of this year.

Overall sales across Tesla dropped by 9% while its profits fell sharply to $1.13bn compared to $2.51bn for the same period last year.

So far in 2024, its share price has collapsed by 32%.

By BBC News

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It follows a two year investigation into crashes which occurred when the tech was in use.

The recall applies to almost every Tesla sold in the US since the Autopilot feature was launched in 2015.

Tesla, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, said it would send a software update “over the air” to fix the issue.

The update happens automatically, and does not require a visit to a dealership or garage, but is still referred to by the US regulator as a recall.

The BBC has approached the UK Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency to ask how Tesla drivers in the UK will be affected.

Autopilot is meant to help with steering, acceleration and braking – but, despite the name, the car still requires driver input.

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said the recall was due to an issue with Autopilot’s driver monitoring system, which detects whether the driver is paying attention.

As part of what it has called an “extensive” two year investigation, NHTSA reviewed 956 crashes where Autopilot was initially alleged to have been in use.

That investigation has culminated in this recall, and with Tesla conceding that the system’s controls “may not be sufficient to prevent driver misuse”.

“Automated technology holds great promise for improving safety but only when it is deployed responsibly”, the NHTSA wrote, adding it would continue to monitor the software once it was updated.

It comes a week after a former Tesla employee told the BBC he believed the technology was not safe.

Lukasz Krupski, speaking after winning the Blueprint Prize which recognises whistleblowers, told the BBC: “I don’t think the hardware is ready and the software is ready.”

“It affects all of us because we are essentially experiments in public roads,” he claimed.

Reacting to the news of the recall Mr Krupski told the BBC it was “a step in the right direction” but pointed out it was not just a problem in the US.

“The hardware is the same in all the Tesla’s in the US, China etc.,” he said.

Safety metrics

Tesla has not so far responded to the BBC’s request for comment but, on Tuesday, the company defended the safety of Autopilot in a post on X (formerly Twitter) in response to a Washington Post article.

“Safety metrics are emphatically stronger when Autopilot is engaged than when not engaged” it wrote, pointing to statistics that suggested there were fewer crashes when the system was used.

Jack Stilgoe, associate professor at University College London, who researches autonomous vehicles, said Tesla should have spent more time developing the system in the first place.

“The conventional way of ensuring safety is to check that a car is safe when it leaves the factory,” he told the BBC.

But despite this being the second recall this year affecting Tesla vehicles, Susannah Streeter of investment company Hargreaves Lansdown, said her assessment was that it should not check the carmaker’s momentum too greatly:

“This recall of 2 million cars on its own is not likely to seriously quash enthusiasm. The share price has dropped back slightly, but it doesn’t look like it’ll be hit by a bad bout of skidding.

“After all, recalls in the car industry are far from unusual and the group also has the financial ability to invest in fixes,” she added.

The recall centres on a part of Autopilot called Autosteer.

Autosteer helps keep a car in the correct lane in conjunction with “traffic-aware cruise control” which matches the speed of the car to that of the surrounding traffic.

The driver is expected to have their hands on wheel and be ready to take over from the assistive system when required.

When Autosteer is on, systems in the car monitor that the driver is paying attention. If it detects the driver isn’t there are warning alerts. There are also alerts if the driver tries to use Autosteer in inappropriate circumstances.

According to the recall documents Tesla supplied to the NHTSA, the “over the air update” will include additional alerts and monitoring “to encourage the driver to adhere to their continuous driving responsibility whenever Autosteer is engaged.”

By BBC News

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The ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) divested 72,631 Tesla (TSLA) shares on Thursday, while the ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF (ARKQ) sold 3,794 shares.

According to trade disclosures published by ARK on their official website, the collective worth of these sales stood at approximately $18.8 million, given Tesla’s closing price of $245.34 on that day.

Also Read: Michael Joseph Resigns From Safaricom

This ongoing trend of divesting Tesla shares reflects ARK funds’ strategy of periodically adjusting their holdings, a practice that has been evident throughout the year, particularly in the months of June and July.

These recent trade disclosures also revealed that the ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF sold 2,487 Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) shares, contributing to a sales value of around $4.2 million based on Thursday’s closing price of $423.88.

Similarly, the ARK Genomic Revolution ETF (ARKG) liquidated 7,411 shares of Nvidia, amounting to a sale value of approximately $4.2 million based on the closing price of $423.88 on the same day.

Also Read: Apple CEO Tim Cook Announces Significant Investment In AI Amidst Declining Sales Numbers

Among other transactions, the ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF executed the sale of 8,153 Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) shares and the ARK Space Exploration & Innovation ETF (ARKX) sold 2,286 shares.

The combined value of these sales reached around $1.4 million, taking into account Alphabet’s Class C shares closing at $130.21 on Thursday.

The ARK Investment Management’s continued adjustments to its portfolio holdings exemplify the fund’s proactive approach to managing its investments in response to market dynamics and evolving trends.

As Cathie Wood’s firm continues to make calculated investment decisions, the financial world remains attentive to the actions and strategies of ARK funds.

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