Jan 16 (Reuters) - U.S. auto safety regulators have granted Tesla (TSLA.O) a five-week extension to respond to an investigation into whether its vehicles violated traffic laws while the Elon Musk-led company’s Full Self-Driving system was engaged.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Friday it has extended the deadline for key responses until February 23 after Tesla requested more time to manually review thousands of records to identify incidents that may be relevant.
The probe is part of federal scrutiny of Tesla’s driver-assistance technology as regulators examine claims that vehicles using FSD have committed traffic violations.
NHTSA opened a preliminary evaluation in October and in December sent Tesla a sweeping information request seeking data on consumer complaints, field reports, crashes, lawsuits and internal assessments related to alleged violations involving FSD.
The agency has received 62 complaints and identified additional media and crash reports potentially tied to the issue.
In a January 12 request, Tesla said 8,313 records remained to be reviewed and that it could process about 300 per day.
Tesla has also cited the burden of responding simultaneously to multiple NHTSA investigations, including separate probes into delayed crash reporting and inoperative door handles, saying the volume of requests could affect the quality of its responses.

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- U.S. auto safety regulators have granted Tesla a five-week extension, allowing until February 23 for the company to respond to an investigation regarding potential traffic law violations linked to its Full Self-Driving system.  
- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) initiated this probe as part of a broader examination of Tesla's driver-assistance technology, having received 62 complaints related to the issue.  
- Tesla indicated that it still needs to review over 8,300 records, processing about 300 each day, while also addressing multiple simultaneous investigations from the NHTSA.

Tesla gets 5-week extension in US probe of Full Self-Driving traffic violations