Krishnamoorthi gives DOT Sept 30 deadline on Tesla FSD — SkimNews
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- Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi wrote to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on September 9, giving him until September 30 to answer five questions about Tesla's Autopilot and Full Self-Driving and citing an NBC News investigation that identified 43 videos of drivers apparently asleep in moving Teslas, 17 posted this year.
- NHTSA's engineering analysis EA26002 covers roughly 3.2 million Tesla vehicles equipped with FSD and sits one step from a recall decision, with nine reduced-visibility incidents — including one fatality and one injury — already in the record.
- Krishnamoorthi flagged Tesla's in-car "Drowsiness detected. Stay focused with FSD" prompt, arguing it encourages continued use of the system precisely when the vehicle has detected the driver may be less capable.
- Tesla's cabin camera monitoring can be defeated by a folded bill draped over it or sunglasses worn by the driver, and Tesla conceded its own software fix would have prevented only three of the nine NHTSA-tracked crashes.
- NHTSA upgraded its FSD investigation to an engineering analysis in March — the final phase before the agency either closes the case or orders a recall — meaning the September 30 deadline falls inside the window for a recall decision.
Why it matters: The September 30 deadline forces the DOT to publicly state whether it considers Tesla's drowsy-driver behavior a recallable defect across 3.2 million vehicles, and whether it views the "Drowsiness detected. Stay focused with FSD" prompt as a safety failure — a posture the DOT has so far avoided despite a fatality already on NHTSA's docket.
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