Authorities investigating if Tesla violated safety regulations

California regulators are continuing to investigate the safety of Tesla’s ‘autopilot’ feature

A California regulator says it’s reviewing whether Tesla has violated safety regulations by falsely promoting its advanced driver assistant system as being “full self-driving.”

Tesla’s driver assistant features, which it describes as “Autopilot” have come under growing scrutiny.

It follows a series of accidents and online videos of Tesla cars driving with no one in the driver’s seat

Now Tesla charges $10,000 for its semi-automated features such as lane changing and parking assistance under its full self-driving software.

But the carmaker states on its website that the features do not make the vehicle fully automatic.

Consumer groups and experts have criticised Tesla for misleading consumers.

They also claim the cars don’t drive themselves, saying that Tesla has violated rules.

As for what this means for the Elon Musk owned company – it could lead to the suspension of their occupational license, among other administrative actions.

Elon Musk confirms Tesla safety modifications

This comes after Elon Musk confirmed Tesla is tweaking its self-driving software to eliminate a phantom braking problem.

Musk says Tesla may release a significantly improved version within the next two to three weeks.

US state regulators have been scrutinising Tesla’s semi-automated driving system following accidents in Texas and other areas.

Musk says the two to three week timeframe is right now an estimate – and acknowledged things are hard to predict accurately. 

READ MORE: Elon Musk hypes Tesla’s new self-driving beta modification