Tesla (TSLA) Claims Autopilot Not in Use During July Crash, CNBC's LeBeau Reports

The National Highway Safety Administration is investigating a July 1 car crash in which Tesla's (TSLA) autopilot was supposedly in use as the company denies this claim on CNBC today.
By Lindsay Rittenhouse ,

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- After a second driver reported crashing his Tesla Motors (TSLA) - Get Report Model X while it was operating under autopilot on July 1, the National Highway Safety Administration announced it has begun an investigation into the accident, CNBC's Phil LeBeau reported on "Closing Bell" Wednesday.

The driver claimed the autopilot was in use when his vehicle hit a barrier on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and flipped over. The driver and the one passenger with him survived the crash.

However, the company told LeBeau that according to its information autopilot was not on at the time of the second accident.

"These guys get information back pretty quickly from their vehicles on a daily basis, so they quickly should be able to tell if certain functions were taking place inside of the vehicle," LeBeau said.

The National Highway Safety Administration is currently "collecting information" on the recent crash, LeBeau said.

The comment from Tesla comes as the company is under investigation following an accident in Florida on May 7, in which a driver fatally crashed his car while using autopilot.

The auto developer was heavily criticized today after it announced that it did not tell regulators that autopilot was involved in the fatal crash until nine days later.

Shares of Tesla closed higher by 0.21% to $214.44 on Wednesday.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings rated Tesla as a "sell" with a score of D+.

This is driven by some concerns, which can be seen in multiple areas, such as its deteriorating net income, generally high debt management risk, disappointing return on equity, weak operating cash flow and generally disappointing historical performance in the stock itself.

You can view the full analysis from the report here: TSLA

TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this articles's author.

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