Petition to recall Teslas rejected

A request to investigate unintended acceleration in Tesla EVs has been rejected by the US government’s automotive safety agency which says drivers hit the wrong pedal.

Brian Sparks of California petitioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in December seeking an investigation and citing 232 complaints to the NHTSA, including 203 crashes.

However, the NHTSA says it did not find evidence during an evaluation covering more than 662,000 Tesla Model S, X, 3 and Y vehicles from the 2012 through 2020 model years to support opening an investigation.

It says that in every case with data available for review, evidence shows the problem was caused by pedal misapplication.

The NHTSA says there no evidence of any fault in Tesla’s accelerator pedal assemblies, motor control systems or brake systems in any of the incidents, and that it is unlikely that an investigation would result in a recall, Reuters says.

Sparks, a 36-year-old investment adviser, says he accepts the NHTSA’s findings, Stuff reports, adding Sparks says he has traded in small amounts of Tesla shares in the past, and at the time he filed the petition he had shorted the stock, betting that it would drop in value. But he says he also has invested expecting gains, and his investment position wasn’t the reason why he petitioned the NHTSA.

The reason was because an acquaintance he met through social media had experienced unintended acceleration in her Tesla and said she could not get help from the company, Sparks suggests.

Tesla has been invited to comment by Reuters.

The NHTSA says Sparks cited a total 232 complaints about unintended acceleration, with the agency finding another 14 and saying its review included analysis of event data recorder, Tesla log data and video data that it acquired during its evaluation.

It says there is no evidence of design factors that make it more likely for Tesla drivers to push the accelerator rather than the brake.

The NHTSA says it cannot substantiate allegations from owners that there was a possible electronic cause for the sudden unintended acceleration.

“The theory provided of a potential electronic cause of SUA in the subject vehicles is based upon inaccurate assumptions about system design and log data.”