US regulators are looking into Elon Musk’s influence on Tesla Inc.’s self-driving car plans The latest initiative by watchdogs to examine the activities of the world’s second-richest man.
Tesla President Elon Musk is under scrutiny from authorities at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in relation to his specific remarks and efforts to spread the automaker’s claim about it having “self-driving” capabilities, Bloomberg reports. The SEC inquiry regarding Musk will be part of their overall effort to determine whether Tesla has violated the rules governing its promotion of the company’s FSD and Autopilot products.
The investigation takes place as part of an in-progress Securities and Exchange Commission probe of the company’s assertions regarding its Autopilot driver-assistance technology According to an individual who has knowledge of the situation who requested not to be identified when discussing details related to the inquiry that haven’t yet been publicly disclosed.
The SEC generally doesn’t make comments on ongoing investigations prior to officially filing a lawsuit however, it hasn’t commented on this particular case. However, recent developments could help provide a reason for why Musk is at the center of their attention regarding Tesla “self-driving” technology: This week, testimony by an engineer who was a high-ranking member of the Tesla team that is working on the Autopilot software showed that a video released by the firm released back in the year 2016 that claimed to demonstrate the Tesla vehicle that was driving itself in reality fake. The report by Bloomberg later discovered that the video was supervised and directed by Musk himself.
The SEC’s responsibilities aren’t related to safety however, it is concerned about public companies and company executive officers who make forward-looking claims which are misleading or false. This is what they’re apparently concerned about in this case– Musk frequently has suggested that FSD could achieve essentially non-driver-driven navigation in timelines that haven’t proved to be true.
According to what SEC concludes after their investigation, there may be faced with lawsuits or other consequences for Musk and his company, such as limitations on his future involvement as an officer in an organization that is publicly traded if they decide to enforce any violations that they find.
