Tesla's Charging Stations Are Great, But Its Autopilot Does Not Meet Sec Buttigieg's Standards

Elon Musk's plan to make plugs available to other electric vehicles is discussed by the Transportation Secretary.

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Pete Buttigieg, the US Secretary of Transportation, recalls meeting over Zoom with auto manufacturers about a year and a half ago when Elon Musk stated that Tesla was willing to adapt some of its electric-vehicle chargers so that they can be used by other automobiles.

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I was delighted to hear that," Buttigieg said in an interview with Trade Algo on Monday. “I thought it sounded great, but let's see if they follow through on it. And, to their credit, it's going forward less than two years after it was introduced.”

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The EV charging initiative Buttigieg refers to was noteworthy not only because of its content - Tesla has promised to open at least 7,500 plugs to all EVs by the end of next year - but also due to the fact that it was announced by a prominent member of the Democratic Party. According to the same White House that Musk had accused of being biased against Tesla, officials briefed reporters on how the company's move fits in with its plan to build a national network of half a million charging stations across the country.

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In a tweet he sent out last month, President Joe Biden said, "that's a big deal, and it will make a big difference." Tesla's CEO, Elon Musk, who once compared the president to a damp sock puppet, replied within an hour: "Thank you, Tesla is happy to support other EVs via our Supercharger network."

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During his description of the Transportation Department's nuanced approach to both working with and regulating Tesla, Buttigieg mentioned EV charging as a point of discussion. In response to questions regarding Tesla and its enigmatic chief executive officer, the Harvard and Oxford-educated Rhodes scholar, and ex-McKinsey consultant repeatedly paused his way through his answers, which could be a sign of his inability to follow complex topics.

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“With their acceleration of electric vehicle manufacturing, they have made the country better off and provided a blueprint for their competitors," Buttigieg said. “However, I wouldn't call something 'Autopilot' if the manual explicitly states that you always need to keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel."

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As a result of his withdrawal from the Democratic Party's presidential primaries in 2020, Buttigieg was nominated to head the department that oversees the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a branch of the government that has taken a more activist approach to the regulation of automated driving systems in recent years. The company has marketed such features in controversial ways, including charging as much as $15,000 for the company's Full Self-Driving System, or FSD, which requires the driver to remain fully attentive behind the wheel and does not render the vehicles autonomous.

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In August 2021 and February 2022, the NHTSA began an investigation into the possibility that Tesla’s standard automated-driving features, marketed as Autopilot, could be defective. A probe by the agency was escalated in June of last year, according to the report. The investigation focused on the way Teslas handle crash scenes involving first responders. During that month, the regulator revealed that it had received 758 complaints concerning Teslas suddenly slowing down at high speeds - which is the subject of the regulator's other defect investigation - and disclosed its first batch of data related to crashes involving driver-assist systems. The majority of these crashes have been reported by Tesla.

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A recall of almost 363,000 Tesla vehicles was announced last month after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration raised concerns about the cars using FSD Beta traveling in an unlawful or unpredictable manner, including exceeding speed limits, traveling straight through intersections with turn-only lanes instead of stopping, and not coming to a complete stop after turning. In order to address the issues, Tesla has paused the rollout of the driver-support feature to more customers until a software update resolves the issues.

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There has been no end to Musk's predictions that Tesla's cars will be able to drive themselves eventually - just last week, he told Morgan Stanley's global head of tech investment banking that a small car the company is developing will operate almost exclusively in an autonomous mode in the future. He told investors in May 2019 that Tesla will have more than one million robotaxis on the road within a year.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice have conducted investigations into Tesla's self-driving claims, according to a Trade Algo report in October. It was confirmed in January by the company that the Justice Department had requested that the company hand over documents related to Autopilot and FSD as part of a lawsuit.

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However, Buttigieg is unable to comment on whether or not the NHTSA will be able to complete its investigation of Tesla Autopilot defects before the end of Biden's presidency. The Transportation Department oversees the carmakers' compliance with the law as well as attempts to get them to go above and beyond what is required of them under the law, according to him.

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"I try my best to make this just a matter of calling balls and strikes," said Buttigieg. “As a regulator, we will be there to make sure that people are taken care of if they do the right thing, and when they don't, or when there is a problem, we will be there to make sure that people are made whole."