nhtsa in august opened a formal safety probe into teslas autopilot system in 765000 us vehicles after a series of crashes involving tesla models and emergency vehicleswashington the biden administrations nominee to serve as the top auto safety regulator said thursday he hopes the agency will soon finish its investigations into crashes involving automated driving systems used in electric vehicles made by tesla inc steven cliff deputy administrator of the national highway traffic safety administration and nominated for the top job was asked about the agencys probes into tesla and he said we hope to have those investigations wrapped up soon he said he did not have a precise timeline advt cliff added the agency works closely with automakers on probes were gathering data now and well determine what those next steps will be cliff said tesla did not respond to a request for comment nhtsa in august opened a formal safety probe into teslas autopilot system in 765000 us vehicles after a series of crashes involving tesla models and emergency vehicles the investigation is a preliminary evaluation and the agency aims to complete those reviews within 120 days and then decides whether upgrade it to an engineering analysis or close it an engineering analysis is a required step before nhtsa can demand an automaker issue a recall to date nhtsa has identified 12 crashes that involved tesla vehicles using the advanced driverassistance systems and emergency vehicles nhtsa in october asked tesla why it has not issued recalls to address software updates made to its autopilot driverassistance system to improve the vehicles ability to detect emergency vehicles tesla in november recalled nearly 12000 us vehicles sold since 2017 because a communication error may cause a false forwardcollision warning or unexpected activation of the emergency brakes nhtsa is also separately reviewing 30 tesla crashes involving 10 deaths since 2016 where it suspected advanced driver assistance systems use advt last week nhtsa said it was discussing with tesla its software update that lets users play video games on a touch screen mounted in front of the dashboard as well as its decision to replace some cameras in vehicles without issuing a recall under pressure from nhtsa tesla in february agreed to recall 135000 vehicles with touchscreen displays that could fail and raise the risk of a crash nhtsa warning the issue could result in loss of rearview or backup camera images exterior turnsignal lighting and windshield defrosting systemsalso read us senate panel to hold hearing on biden autosafety agency pickthe democratic presidents nominee is steven cliff a former california air resources board official who since february has served as nhtsas deputy administrator cliff has been a key figure in the biden administrations proposed rewrite of vehicle fuel economy standards through 2026 and is overseeing its safety investigation of electric car maker tesla incsee more details biden auto safety nominee vows to address jump in traffic deathsus traffic deaths soared by 184 in the first six months of 2021 compared to the