Tesla Cybercab is already under NHTSA investigation after launch

This one's off topic for home energy upgrades, but here's what happened: federal regulators have opened an investigation into Tesla's Cybercab, the driverless two-seater the company just started using for paid rides in Austin. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened the probe the same day Tesla began putting passengers in the vehicle.

The issue is how Tesla certified the car as road-legal in the first place. The Cybercab has no steering wheel, pedals, or mirrors, and many federal vehicle safety rules were written assuming a human driver operates those controls. Automakers in the US don't get pre-approval from regulators before selling a vehicle; they certify their own cars meet the rules, and the government can investigate afterward. Tesla decided some of those rules don't apply to a car with no human controls, and NHTSA now wants to see the reasoning behind that call. The investigation, covering an estimated 1,000 vehicles, is separate from an existing federal probe into Tesla's "Full Self-Driving" software covering 3.2 million vehicles.

For homeowners, this has nothing to do with energy bills, rebates, or home upgrades. It's a story about a car company and a federal safety regulator sorting out how self-driving vehicles fit into rules written for cars with steering wheels.