By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it would not grant a petition seeking a formal review of 662,000 Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) vehicles for claims of sudden unintended acceleration (SUA).
The U.S. auto safety regulator said its review of the December 2019 petition into 2012-2020 model year Tesla Model S, Model X, Model Y and Model 3 vehicles found the incidents cited "were caused by pedal misapplication. NHTSA found no evidence of fault in the accelerator pedal assemblies, motor control systems, or brake systems that contributed to the cited incidents."
The petition cited 232 complaints to NHTSA, including 203 crashes and the agency opened a formal review into the petition in January 2020.
NHTSA added that "there is no evidence of a design factor contributing to increased likelihood of pedal misapplication. The theory provided of a potential electronic cause of SUA in the subject vehicles is based upon inaccurate assumptions about system design and log data."
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request to comment.