Tesla is currently facing the threat of 500,000 of its vehicles being recalled based on a petition the company claims is "completely false."
Last week, Reuters reported that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) decided to review a petition requesting it formally investigates unintended acceleration reports for Tesla vehicles. Although such a review could result in half a million vehicles being recalled, Tesla has responded by stating not only that the claims are false, but that the petition was brought by a Tesla stock short-seller.
The petition is wide-ranging, covering Model S, Model X, and Model 3 vehicles dating as far back as 2012. It includes reference to 127 consumer complaints, 123 unique vehicles, 110 crashes, and 52 injuries. It claims, "Tesla vehicles experience unintended acceleration at rates far exceeding other cars on the roads" and that the NHTSA should, "recall all Model S, Model X and Model 3 vehicles produced from 2013 to the present.
CNBC learned that the petition was brought by an independent investor named Brian Sparks and that he is currently shorting Tesla stock. Tesla points this out in the first sentence of its response to the petition before going on to state, "We investigate every single incident where the driver alleges to us that their vehicle accelerated contrary to their input, and in every case where we had the vehicle's data, we confirmed that the car operated as designed. In other words, the car accelerates if, and only if, the driver told it to do so, and it slows or stops when the driver applies the brake."
Tesla believes the design of the accelerator pedals in all three vehicle models mentioned in the petition means unintended acceleration can't happen. Two independent position sensors are used for the pedals and in response to an error "the system defaults to cut off motor torque." Pressing the brake and accelerator pedals simultaneously will also cut off motor torque, and as an additional safety measure the Autopilot sensor suite is used "to help distinguish potential pedal misapplications and cut torque to mitigate or prevent accidents when we're confident the driver's input was unintentional."
The NHTSA review should prove if the petition is worth taking seriously or if this is indeed what Tesla believes it to be: a false claim made by a short-seller.