Why Is Tesla Trending Today? Here’s What The NHTSA Has To Say

U.S. auto safety regulator National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on Thursday opened a probe into EV giant Tesla Inc. (TSLA) over delays in filing incident reports of crashes involving its advanced driver assistance systems or autonomous vehicles.

The agency’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) said that Tesla reported many incidents several months or more after they occurred, when regulations at the time required a report to be submitted within one or five days of Tesla receiving notice of the crash.

The regulator said that it is opening an audit query to evaluate the cause and scope of the delays in reporting crash incidents and to evaluate the mitigations that Tesla has developed to address them

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around Tesla trended in the ‘bearish’ territory over the past 24 hours, while message volume remained at ‘low’ levels.

The ODI said that preliminary engagement with Tesla on the issue indicated that the timing of the reports was due to an issue with the company’s data collection. The agency further stated that, according to Tesla, the issue has now been fixed.

The regulator also noted that Tesla submitted many of the reports as part of a single batch while others were submitted on a “rolling basis.” The NHTSA will now assess whether any reports of prior incidents remain outstanding and whether the reports that were submitted include all of the required and available data, it said.

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs on Thursday reiterated a ‘Neutral’ rating on Tesla.

“For Tesla specifically, we think it is a positive that Tesla has begun robotaxi operations which puts it on the path to addressing a large market (we estimate that the U.S. robotaxi market will be $7 bn in 2030...),” the analyst said, as reported by CNBC.

A Stocktwits user sounded skeptical about the company, saying it will need to build consumer trust.

Another user, however, expressed optimism about robotaxis.

TSLA stock is down by 21% this year but up by about 44% over the past 12 months. 

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