Tough Tesla test awaits just confirmed US auto regulator

This week, the U.S. Senate voted 51-47 to confirm Jonathan Morrison to lead the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

It is the first time in three years that the head of the agency tasked with keeping U.S. highways safe has been appointed. Interim heads have been in place since the Biden administration. 

Morrison, formerly a lawyer at Apple and the NHTSA's chief counsel during President Doland Trump's first term, says he plans to be a proactive agency leader.

"NHTSA cannot sit back and wait for problems to arise with such developing technologies, but must demonstrate strong leadership," Morrison said.

Tesla is at the forefront of developing many of these technologies, including advanced driver assistance and battery technology itself, and Morrison is entering a situation where multiple Tesla investigations are already on the docket. 

The NHTSA has multiple investigations into Tesla already

Tesla ranks third in open NHTSA investigations with four. Ford and Honda are ahead of it with eight and five, respectively.

Earlier this year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk caused quite a stir after the Department of Government Efficiency, at his direction, fired about 30 members of the NHTSA. 

Related: Tesla will finally fix a dangerous issue on its EVs

According to reports, many of those workers were tasked with assessing the risk of self-driving cars, which is where Tesla is betting most of its future value lies. 

One worker said at the time that the firings could “weaken NHTSA’s ability to understand self-driving technologies.”

Since then, Elon Musk has been legally forced to leave his position at DOGE, and the agency has multiple investigations open into the company. 

Since October, the NHTSA has investigated Tesla's full self-driving collisions in reduced roadway visibility situations. That investigation is centered on the software's ability to detect and respond to reduced visibility situations like fog, sun glare, and airborne dust.

The review was prompted by four crashes involving Teslas driven by FSD, including one that involved a fatality.

Tesla then failed to answer a detailed questionnaire about FSD that the NHTSA sent to it by a June 19 deadline. The agency didn't receive a response until days after the deadline. 

Related: Tesla responds to government regulators looking for answers

In January, the NHTSA opened an investigation into 2.6 million Tesla vehicles over reports of crashes involving a feature that allows users to move their cars remotely. 

In August, it was reported that the Office of Defects Investigations was investigating "numerous incident reports submitted by Tesla in response to Standing General Order 2021-01, in which the reported crashes occurred several months or more before the dates of the reports."

The official notice clarifies that the opening of this audit query "is a standard process for reviewing compliance with legal requirements" and that Tesla says the issue is data collection and has already been fixed.

The NHTSA investigation prompts Tesla to make needed changes

While many considered Musk's involvement in the firing of regulators tasked with monitoring him to be a conflict of interest, the NHTSA hasn't really backed down from the company since he departed from Washington. 

This week, the NHTSA announced that it is in the second phase of its three-step process to issue a recall on the popular Tesla Model Y over an electrical issue that could cause the door handle to fail.

The government agency is investigating after receiving reports of parents being unable to open the doors of their vehicles with children trapped in the car.

More Tesla:

• Tesla lands in more hot water over Elon Musk's Full Self Driving claims
• Tesla's history of settling Autopilot claims before $243 million lawsuit
• Tesla faces another lawsuit after $323 million autopilot verdict

"The most commonly reported scenarios involved parents exiting the vehicle after a drive cycle in order to remove a child from the back seat or placing a child in the back seat before starting a drive cycle. In those events, the parents were unable to reopen a door to regain access to the vehicle," the NHTSA said.

The door handle has remained the same since 2018, but on Thursday, Tesla's longtime design chief, Franz von Holzhausen, told Bloomberg News (subscription) that the company is considering combining its electronic and manual door-release mechanisms to fix the issue. 

Related: Tesla FSD faces more trouble as government opens investigation