Tesla Inc. is facing a U.S. criminal investigation into claims that it has made around the self-driving capabilities of its vehicles, according to a Wednesday afternoon report from Reuters. The story, which cites three anonymous sources, said that the Department of Justice opened the inquiry into Tesla last year in the wake of crashes involving Tesla’s Autopilot system, which provides driver assistance. While federal and California safety regulators have looked into Tesla’s autopilot comments, Reuters noted that the “potentially represents a more serious level of scrutiny because of the possibility of criminal charges against the company or individual executives,” though the story also said that any case could be complicated by the fact that Tesla has also offered some warnings about Autopilot. Tesla, which dissolved its media relations team, did not reply to MarketWatch’s request for confirmation or comment Wednesday. A representative for the Department of Justice declined to comment, saying that the agency doesn’t generally confirm or deny investigations. Tesla shares were up 1% in Wednesday’s trading session. They’ve lost 13% over the past three months as the S&P 500 has slipped 2%.
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