The head of the U.S. auto safety agency hopes to end Tesla's safety investigation as soon as possible

On the morning of December 17, according to the news, the head of the U.S. government's nominee for the highest U.S. auto safety regulator said Thursday that he hoped the agency would end its investigation into the accident involving Tesla's autopilot system as soon as possible.

Steven Cliff, deputy director of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), has been nominated by the U.S. government as its director. Asked about the agency's investigation into Tesla, he said: "We want to close these investigations as soon as possible." But he didn't provide a precise timeline.

Cliff added that the agency is working closely with automakers to investigate. "We are currently collecting data and will soon be able to determine the next steps." He said.

Tesla has not commented on this.

After Tesla vehicles collided with multiple emergency vehicles, NHTSA launched a formal safety investigation into Tesla's Autopilot system installed on 765,000 cars in the United States in August.

The survey is still in the preliminary evaluation phase, and NHTSA plans to complete the evaluation within 120 days before deciding whether to upgrade to engineering analysis or to end it.

NHTSA must conduct an engineering analysis to require automakers to recall vehicles.

So far, NHTSA has identified 12 accidents involving Tesla and emergency vehicles using the Autopilot system.

NHTSA asked Tesla in October why it hadn't offered a recall to address software updates that would allow Autopilot Driver Assistance to better detect emergency vehicles.

Tesla recalled nearly 12,000 cars sold since 2017 in the U.S. in November because communication errors could lead to misplaced forward collision warnings or accidental activation of emergency brakes.

NHTSA also separately evaluated 30 Tesla accidents since 2016 that resulted in a total of 10 deaths, and advanced driver assistance systems may have been turned on at the time of the accident.

NHTSA said last week that it was discussing with Tesla the company's software update, which would allow users to play games on the dashboard's touchscreen, and the decision not to replace some cameras with a recall.

Under pressure from NHTSA, Tesla agreed in February to recall 135,000 cars with touchscreens that could fail and increase the risk of collision. NHTSA warns that this issue can lead to image loss in the rearview mirror or backup camera, as well as failure of the external turn signal and windshield primary frost system.