Shares of the American company Tesla began to fall after the US launched an investigation into the operation of the autopilot of electric vehicles. At the opening of trading on Monday, August 16, securities fell 4.31 percent, then the fall accelerated to 4.45 percent – to $685.23 per share, and then to five percent ($681.01 per share). This is evidenced by trade data.

The reason for the collapse of the shares was an investigation into the safety of electric vehicles. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has begun an audit following several accidents involving Tesla vehicles on autopilot. This applies to models Y, X, S and 3 with Tesla Autopilot systems and Traffic-aware cruise control – 765 thousand cars in total – almost all sold in the US since 2014.

Authorities have suspected that when driving with autopilot or cruise control on, vehicles often misidentify parked roadside and emergency vehicles. Totally, 11 such accidents have been identified since 2018, mainly in the evening and at night. Tesla crashed into cars with, flashing lights, signal lights and an illuminated arrow board on.