nhtsa asked tesla in september why it has not issued a recall to address software updates made to its autopilot driverassistance system for its cars the us senate commerce committee on thursday is set to hold a confirmation hearing on president joe bidens nominee to head the national highway traffic safety administration nhtsa an agency without a permanent leader for nearly five years the 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 inc advt nhtsa asked tesla in september why it has not issued a recall to address software updates made to its autopilot driverassistance system for its cars the agency also has held recent discussions with tesla about why it allows video games to be played on a touch screen mounted in front of the dashboard and its plans to replace cameras in some vehicles nhtsa in august opened a formal safety inquiry into teslas autopilot system in 765000 us vehicles after a series of crashes involving tesla models and emergency vehicles the agency part of the us transportation department faces a backlog of pending auto safety regulations and has not had a senateconfirmed administrator since january 2017 the month when republican former president donald trump took office prior to cliffs selection in october there had not been a nominee for nhtsas top job since 2019 nhtsa in august proposed reversing the trump administrations rollback of corporate average fuel economy rules amid the covid19 pandemic the united states has experienced a sustained increase in traffic deaths that nhtsa attributes to impaired driving speeding a failure to wear seatbelts and other unsafe behavior us traffic deaths soared by 184 in the first six months of 2021 compared to the same period a year earlier representing the most deadly first half of a year on american roads since 2006 nhtsa said it was the largest sixmonth increase recorded since the current tracing system has been in use since 1975also readus auto safety agency presses tesla on video game featuredistractionaffected crashes are a concern particularly in vehicles equipped with an array of convenience technologies such as entertainment screens we are aware of driver concerns and are discussing the feature with the manufacturer nhtsa said in a statement provided to reuters by emailsee more details reuters published on dec 14 2021 at 0724 pm ist telegram facebook copy link be the first one to comment comment now comments comment now read comment 1 all comments post post find this comment offensive choose your reason below and click on the submit button this will alert our moderators to take actions reasons for reporting foul language defamatory inciting hatred against a certain community out of context spam others report join the community of 2m industry professionals subscribe to our newsletter