The first time Washington regulators tried to investigate Tesla’s Autopilot software, CEO Elon Musk was irate.Weeks earlier, a Tesla using the company’s advanced driver-assistance system had crashed into a tractor-trailer at about 70 mph, killing the driver. When National Highway Traffic Safety Administration officials called Tesla executives to say they were launching an investigation, Musk screamed, protested and threatened to sue, said a former safety official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
The regulators knew Musk could be impulsive and stubborn; they would need to show some spine to win his cooperation. So they waited. And in a subsequent call, “when tempers were a little bit cool,” the official said, Musk agreed to cooperate: “He was a changed person.”
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