Earlier this year Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) started a probe to look into Tesla’s Autopilot system, in particular the automated lane-change function to determine if it is approved for use in Europe.
Ultimately the agency forced Tesla to limit the function to no longer perform lane changes automatically, instead requiring the driver to always use the turn signal to initiate the maneuver.
We thought that was the end of Europe’s nerfing of Tesla’s Autopilot abilities (it had previously limited how far the steering wheel can turn and that a lane change must occur within a certain amount of time), but it appears the KBA wants Tesla to limit it even more.
According to a report by the German publication WiWo+, a KBA spokesperson confirmed the agency found “abnormalities” with Tesla’s Autopilot software during testing. The spokesperson said those abnormalities have only been “partially remedied by the manufacturer” through the software update earlier this summer that limited automatic lane changes.
More importantly, the spokesperson also said that “further remedial measures are still being tested and validated.”
Unfortunately no further details were provided on what those “further remedial measures” may be, or a timeline for when the fixes might be pushed to the fleet through a software update.
Apparently frustrated with Tesla’s lack of transparency with their software updates, KBA President Richard Damm told WiWo+ that he may shut down the affected Teslas unless the company provides more information.
“If we do not receive any information, we cannot rule out that systems do not comply with the rules,” Damm said.
If any of our readers have more information about what these “further remedial measures” might be, let us know in the comments below or email us at tips@driveteslacanada.ca.
