For Tesla, today’s decision will be a justification. When the news of the petition first came out, the company said it was “completely false” and claimed it was a ploy by a “short seller” to make money from his accident. Tesla claimed at the time that it had already designed its cars to avoid possible problems with unintentional acceleration. Each of the cars has two pedal position sensors that automatically turn off the torque of the car if they detect ‘any fault’. The failure is complemented by the company’s Autopilot system, which is designed to catch any pedal abuse.
The person who asked the NHTSA to investigate the incidents requested that the agency recall all Model S, X and 3 vehicles if it finds safety issues. As such, Tesla has avoided a potentially devastating recall, but that does not mean the carmaker is clear forever. The NHTSA said it could revisit the issue in the future (or any other issue, for that matter) if new information comes to light.