Report says Elon Musk is being investigated by the SEC over Tesla’s self-driving car claims TechCrunch

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is facing scrutiny from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over his specific comments and efforts to bolster the manufacturer’s claims. cars about their ability to “self-driving”. Bloomberg’s report. The SEC’s investigation into Musk is part of the agency’s joint effort to determine if Tesla violated its rules in promoting FSD and Autopilot services.

The SEC generally does not comment on any ongoing investigations prior to the formal filing of the lawsuit and specifically does not comment on this case. But recent revelations may explain why Musk is on their radar when it comes to Tesla’s “self-driving” technology: Last week, the testimony of a senior engineer on the Tesla team working on Autopilot software revealed that a video the company released in 2016 purported to show a self-driving Tesla car in fact staged. Reported by Bloomberg later revealed that the video was supervised and directed by Musk himself.

Of course, the SEC’s domain is not safety claims, but it does matter with public companies or corporate executives making forward-looking statements that are false or misleading. wrong. That’s clearly what they’re interested in here – Musk has often suggested that FSD will achieve essentially driverless navigation in unproven timelines.

Based on what the SEC determines after its investigation, we could see lawsuits or other consequences for Musk, including restrictions on his future activity as are employees of a public company if they choose to pursue enforcement of any violations they discover.