Agency will look into Teslas over acceleration

Petition says the electric cars can suddenly speed up unintentionally

Tesla is coming under the gaze of the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration as the federal agency said Friday it will review a petition to look at 500,000 Tesla cars due to several complaints about the vehicles speeding up at unintended times.

The NHTSA said it will review the petition after having received 127 complaints involving 123 different Tesla vehicles. Additionally, the NHTSA said its has received reports of 110 crashes and 52 injuries related to the petition.

According to the NHTSA, the petition “alleges that the subject vehicles contain a defect that can cause sudden unintended acceleration, which may result in crash and injury.” Many of the Teslas covered in the petition were reported to have sped up when drivers were parking their vehicles, or when the cars were in traffic and a driver was using the Tesla’s driver assistance system.

The petition covers Tesla Model S cars between the 2012 and 2019 model years, Tesla Model X cars from 2016 through 2019, and 2018 and 2019 Tesla Model 3 cars. The NHTSA said it opened the investigation on Jan. 13 after having received an initial request on Dec. 19, 2019.

Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter.

Friday’s investigation announcement comes after the NHTSA said in December that it is looking into a 12th Tesla car crash that may be related to the company’s Autopilot assisted driver technology.