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Elon Musk hikes Tesla's self-driving system price as US probes its safety woes
The second hike in the full-self driving system price in a year comes at a time when Tesla has come under scrutiny from the US auto-safety regulators over its in-camera systems as part of an investigation whether the company's automated-driving technology is defective.
Tesla chief executive officer Elon Musk has said that the price for his company's full self-driving system will rise to $15,000 ( ₹11.98 lakh) in North America. The price rise will be effective from September 7, the Tesla CEO tweeted.
The current price of $12,000 ( ₹9.58 lakh) will be honoured for the orders made before that day, but delivered later, Musk tweeted.
The second hike in the full-self driving system price in a year comes at a time when Tesla has come under scrutiny from the US auto-safety regulators over its in-camera systems as part of an investigation whether the company's automated-driving technology is defective.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on August 18 asked Tesla a series of questions related to the cameras and the ways they are used to monitor driver's attentiveness, Bloomberg reported.
The regulator asked Tesla to describe the role that the cabin camera plays in the enforcement of driver engagement and the manner in which the inputs are factored into the operation.
The regulator also asked Tesla's field quality director Eddie Gates to describe the engineering and safety explanation” for certain design decisions regarding automated systems including its Autopilot feature.
The probe, which was launched after a dozen collisions at crash scenes involving first-responder vehicles, signaled a change in regulatory posture toward Tesla following years of complaints from safety advocates about the company’s marketing of its driver-assistance systems under the names Autopilot and Full Self Driving.
Tesla, which has disbanded its media relations department, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The EV maker, run by Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, was also asked to include “evidence that justifies the period of time that the driver is permitted to have their hands off the steering wheel before receiving a warning,” and information on the amount of time that lapses if the driver doesn’t respond before receiving additional warnings.
The agency gave Tesla a September 19 deadline to respond to the bulk of the questions.
