The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Tesla over allegations that the automaker inflated its vehicles’ driving range estimates with a rigged algorithm, the company confirmed in a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Monday.
The department is also looking into whether Tesla improperly used company funds for CEO Elon Musk’s proposed house project.
Tesla, however, said neither the Justice Department nor another government agency “has concluded that any wrongdoing occurred” in any ongoing investigation related to the automaker.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York is probing personal benefits that Tesla might have given Musk since 2017, including a proposed house for the CEO known as “Project 42” inside the company, and related information, the Wall Street Journal reported in September.
The plan reportedly called for Tesla to construct a large, glass-walled building near the automaker’s factory and headquarters in Austin, Texas.
The house project came to light after an internal investigation, Bloomberg reported last year. The company launched the probe after Tesla’s finance and internal audit teams flagged a suspicious purchase order for a unique type of glass in 2022, Bloomberg reported.
Musk said on X, formerly known as Twitter, in September that Tesla had not built and did not plan to build a “glass house.”
“I’m not building any house of any kind anywhere. Period,” Musk said.
The Justice Department’s investigation of Tesla driving range estimates is now part of a class-action lawsuit. The department is looking into whether Tesla falsified range estimates to show drivers longer distances than the vehicle could travel before its battery ran out of juice, Reuters reported in July.
A rigged algorithm reportedly controlled the inflated range estimates displayed on the vehicle’s dashboard and was first deployed about a decade ago without the knowledge of Tesla owners.
Tesla said the Justice Department also requested information related to the automaker’s Autopilot advanced driver assistance and Full-Self Driving systems, which are the subject of numerous lawsuits and investigations.
In July, CNBC reported the California attorney general is investigating Tesla over safety and false advertising complaints regarding its Autopilot system.
In the filing Monday, the automaker also shared its separation agreement with former CFO Zachary Kirkhorn, who left the company in August after spending 13 years at Tesla, including four as its “Master of Coin.”
