US regulators from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are investigating possibly misleading claims Tesla founder and owner Elon Musk may have made about the company's revolutionary new Autopilot driving system, US media reports said on Friday.
The SEC is conducting a comprehensive probe into the Autopilot system, Bloomberg News reported.
According to the outlet, SEC officials have yet to decide whether they believe Musk made inappropriately optimistic statements about the prospects for developing the Autopilot system that would have boosted the company's stock value.
If the SEC was to conclude Musk made seriously misleading claims with financial consequences, he and/or his company could face potentially significant lawsuits, government fines or other penalties, Bloomberg said.
The probe comes as Tesla is also about to face a jury trial to decide whether it is liable in a case where an Autopilot-directed car caused a fatal accident, killing a human driver.
Additionally, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has launched two probes into whether Autopilot is safe and reliable or has serious flaws.
Musk Meets With Biden Officials Over Inflation Reduction Act
Also Friday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed that Musk, the world's second-richest man, met with White House Deputy Chief of Staff John Podesta and Infrastructure Coordinator Mitch Landrieu to discuss how the company can work with the Biden administration to advance electric vehicle production and enhance electrification of US vehicles.
Individuals in the United States who own Tesla vehicles became eligible this month for up to $7,500 in tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which was passed in August 2022.
The IRA commits approximately $370 billion in funding for energy security, including tax credits for electric vehicles manufactured in the United States and subsidies to US consumers and companies making green technology.
In 2016, the electric-car maker announced its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software as an enhancement to Autopilot using the video "Full Self-Driving Hardware on All Teslas" to promote its capabilities. FSD is a beta add-on that enables the vehicle to automatically change lanes, enter and exit highways, recognize stop signs and traffic lights, and park. The software still requires a licensed driver to monitor the system at all times.
Musk has promoted the software on social media and in earnings calls with investors. The Tesla CEO has been promising for years that Tesla will have fully autonomous cars on the road. Last year, the billionaire said the carmaker's self-driving software is the difference between Tesla being worth a lot of money or almost nothing.
Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that Musk personally oversaw the development of a 2016 video that promoted the self-driving software and allegedly faked some of the software's capabilities.
It's not the first time the SEC has investigated Musk, who in 2018 settled fraud charges brought by the agency over a tweet from the Tesla CEO, saying he planned to take the carmaker private. Last year, the SEC confirmed it was also investigating the billionaire after he was late to disclose a stake he had built up in Twitter. The agency also launched an investigation in 2022 into allegations Musk and his brother may have violated insider trading regulations. That year he accused the agency of a "harassment campaign" that unfairly singled him out, but the regulator denied the accusation.
Musk's self-driving software has also come under increased scrutiny in recent years over its marketing of the services. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating Autopilot and its potential connection to several accidents.
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