tesla suspension

Back in June, a story about an alleged defect in Tesla’s suspension prompted a probe by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and ended up making international news. As we reported at the time, the story ended up originating from NHTSA complaints filed by an Australian man based on his own interpretation of pictures of salvaged Tesla Model S cars from websites.

Despite NHTSA looking into the alleged issue and reportedly not finding anything, the Australian in question, Keef Wivaneff, is still filing his bogus NHTSA complaints about Tesla.
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Following reports of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) probing Tesla over a possible problem with the Model S’ suspension and the automaker’s goodwill agreement, it came to light that several false and/or misleading complaints were filed with NHTSA.

A spokesperson for NHTSA confirmed that the agency has not found any safety issue with Tesla’s suspensions and that the company has clarified the language in its goodwill agreement. It considers the issue resolved, but Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared on Twitter that something suspicious is going on with the suspension complaints:

Would seem to indicate that one or more people sought to create the false impression of a safety issue where none existed. Q is why?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 10, 2016

It can be difficult to understand why would someone falsify complaints to an official agency, which can be harmful to both the company and time-wasting for the regulators. The most obvious explanation is always money, and Tesla brought it up in a blog post following last week’s events.
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The news of NHTSA regulators looking into a potential problem with the Tesla Model S’ suspension blew up yesterday after literally hundreds of media outlets, from Reuters to the NY Times, picked up the story. There are a lot of misleading headlines and reports out there right now so let’s focus on the facts we know so far.

The actual potential problem with Tesla’s suspension is only part of what prompt NHTSA to probe the situation. Media are widely reporting that Tesla attempted to cover up the alleged problems by making owners sign a non-disclosure agreement.

NHTSA spokesman Bryan Thomas:

“The agency immediately informed Tesla that any language implying that consumers should not contact the agency regarding safety concerns is unacceptable, and N.H.T.S.A. expects Tesla to eliminate any such language. Tesla representatives told N.H.T.S.A. that it was not their intention to dissuade consumers from contacting the agency.”

Update: Tesla reportedly agreed to update the Goodwill agreement to clarify that anyone signing it is in no way prohibited from reporting the repair to regulators.

First of, there’s currently no investigation or recall over this issue with Tesla. NHTSA is currently reviewing the case in order to decide if it needs to open a formal investigation. We will update if we get more information from the agency, but Tesla is already out with a statement claiming that there’s no defect on the Model S’ suspension and that the ‘NDA’ was not aimed at dissuading anyone to contact regulators, but they will work with NHTSA to correct it if there’s a need.
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