The U.S. Department of Justice is reportedly investigating Tesla Inc. for securities and wire fraud over claims made by the company and Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk about its Autopilot and “Full Self-Driving” features.

Reuters, referencing three people familiar with the matter, said the investigation is looking into whether Tesla committed securities or wire fraud by misleading investors and consumers about the company’s self-driving capabilities. The wire fraud investigation involves alleged “deception in interstate communications” by misleading consumers, while the securities fraud investigation is considering whether Tesla deceived investors.

The sources referenced by Reuters, which noted that the investigation is not necessarily evidence of wrongdoing, said the investigation could result in criminal charges, civil sanctions or no actions. Prosecutors are also reportedly far from deciding how to proceed, in part because of the sheer number of documents provided by Tesla in response to subpoenas.

There has been no official comment on the report from either the Justice Department or Elon Musk as of the time of writing. Musk, however, is now prefacing any mention of self-driving technology in tweets on X Inc. with the word “supervised” in parentheses.

The latest version of Tesla’s (supervised) self-driving will blow your mind https://t.co/jiOluhlSPZ

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 8, 2024

Reports that the Justice Department had launched a criminal investigation into Tesla’s self-driving tech claims first emerged in 2022.

Investigations into Tesla and its self-driving technology are far from new. The technology, long hyped by Musk, has been problematic from the get-go, with hundreds of crashes and multiple investigations.

A National Transportation Safety Board report into an accident in 2020 involving Tesla’s Autopilot system found that it did not provide effective means of monitoring the driver’s level of engagement. It also found that the Autopilot’s crash avoidance assist systems did not detect the possibility of the collision occurring and instead accelerated into the crash situation. Another investigation from the NHTSA also resulted in changes to how Autopilot functions.

In 2021, the California Department of Motor Vehicles said it had initiated an investigation into Tesla’s marketing, concerned that the company was misleading its customers. The DMV said the false promotion of the software was putting people’s lives at risk.

Photo: r/Teslamotors