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Former Ford CEO hammers Tesla’s Autopilot probe: ‘It’s half the vehicles Tesla has ever built’
Former Ford CEO Mark Fields hammered Tesla’s Autopilot probe from the NHTSA earlier today on an episode of CNBC’s Squawk Box, stating that over half of the cars the automaker has ever built are involved in the investigation.
Earlier this week, it was announced the NHTSA was launching a probe into the Autopilot system Tesla has equipped on its vehicles. The investigation involves all four of Tesla’s models from year 2014 to 2021, as it aligns with the specifications that the NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation listed in its preliminary report. In total, some 765,000 vehicles are going to be a part of the investigation, although only 11 crashes are listed on the document, which the agency shared with Teslarati.
“The Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) has identified eleven crashes in which Tesla models of various configurations have encountered first responder scenes and subsequently struck one or more vehicles involved with those scenes,” it says.
Fmr. Ford CEO Fields: “It’s literally over half of the vehicles Tesla has ever built.”
Mark Fields, who was CEO of Ford Motor Company from 2014 to 2017, appeared on CNBC this morning to talk about the probe. “This is a significant investigation,” he said. However, Fields misidentifies which Tesla semi-autonomous driving suite is actually under investigation, as he claims it is the Full Self-Driving package. FSD is significantly different than Autopilot based on features and functionality alone, and the NHTSA never mentions the Full Self-Driving suite at any point in its document.
Fields points toward the population density of the investigation as a telltale sign that this could be bad news for Tesla, as over half of its produced vehicles could be subjected to a massive recall that could cost the automaker billions of dollars. Tesla surpassed the 1 million production mark in 2020 and is nearing the 2 million vehicle mark this year.
“If you look at the model years, this is a very large time period they’re investigating: 2014-2021. If you look at the number of potentially affected vehicles, it’s …. literally over half of the vehicles $TSLA has ever built,” auto exec Mark Fields on the NHTSA investigation. pic.twitter.com/kwcUT5Jd47
— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) August 17, 2021
The investigation does focus on a larger than half portion of Tesla’s production population in its short history. However, it is worth noting that the company did not mass produce vehicles until 2017 with the introduction of the Model 3. Additionally, Autopilot is available on all Tesla vehicles and was included as a standard feature in March 2019. Full Self-Driving is not a part of this investigation, and is a separate $10,000 charge on top of the vehicle’s purchase price but is completely optional.
Fields said that the investigation could take between a year and a year and a half based on his knowledge of the NHTSA investigation process. If the NHTSA concludes the Autopilot functionality is not up to its standards, it can issue a recall, Fields added.
The 11 Accidents: a Breakdown
According to the NHTSA documents, the 11 incidents involving a Tesla occurred when the vehicles collided with first responders. However, several investigations have already shown that drivers operating the vehicles in some of the incidents were under the influence of drugs or alcohol (2), had suspended licenses (1), were not following instructions that Tesla outlines for Autopilot use, or was caused by driver inattention (4).
In February 2021, a Tesla driver injured five deputy constables when the vehicle collided with a police cruiser, causing a chain collision. The driver was arrested on suspicion of DWI.
In March 2021, a driver in Lansing, Michigan, with a suspended license, crashed into a police cruiser. The vehicle was operating on Autopilot, but the driver was illegally operating the vehicle.
These are just two examples of what the accidents were caused by, and drivers could be blamed for several instances that the NHTSA lists. Autopilot has been one of the safest ways to operate a motor vehicle, according to statistics from Tesla that showed there was one accident every 4.19 million miles in which drivers had Autopilot engaged. The national average was one crash every 484,000 miles.
NASA has filed a procurement notice announcing its intent to add six post-certification missions to SpaceX’s existing Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract. The agency said it would order up to three of those missions immediately upon adding them to the contract, with the remaining three available as needed through the end of the International Space Station’s planned operations in 2030.
The reason for the expansion is straightforward. NASA cited recently shortened ISS mission durations, technical issues and schedule delays encountered by Boeing, the allocation of missions between Boeing and SpaceX, and the ongoing technical challenges of maintaining a reliable crew transportation capability as the driving factors behind the decision. Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner has still not been certified for crewed flights, and a cargo-only Starliner mission was not included on NASA’s most recent mission manifest. With Boeing effectively sidelined for the foreseeable future, SpaceX is the only American company capable of rotating crews to the station.
The history behind this contract tells the fuller story of how SpaceX got here. NASA originally awarded SpaceX its Commercial Crew contract in 2014 for $2.6 billion. In 2022 NASA modified the contract to add five missions covering Crew-10 through Crew-14, worth $1.436 billion, bringing the total contract value at that point to $4.9 billion. The recent May 18 filing by NASA extends that runway further, with Crew-12 currently docked at the station and Crew-13 assigned and targeting a mid-September 2026 launch.
According to a report by SpaceNews, NASA stated in its filing: “It is necessary to award additional PCMs to SpaceX given the recently shortened ISS mission durations, technical issues and schedule delays encountered by Boeing, the allocation of missions between Boeing and SpaceX, NASA’s projections for when an alternative crew transportation system may become available, and the ongoing technical challenges of maintaining a reliable capability for crewed flights to ISS.”
No dollar value for the new six missions has been publicly confirmed yet, but based on the 2022 precedent of roughly $287 million per mission, the new block could represent close to $1.7 billion in additional contract value. With SpaceX simultaneously preparing Starship as NASA’s Artemis lunar lander, filing its S-1 for a June IPO, and now absorbing more ISS crew rotation work, the company’s role as the primary contractor for American human spaceflight is no longer a matter of circumstance. It is NASA policy.
In a notable intersection of Big Tech powerhouses, Meta, led by Mark Zuckerberg, has partnered with Canadian energy infrastructure giant Enbridge on a significant renewable energy initiative that will rely on battery technology from Elon Musk’s Tesla.
The project, which was announced this week, marks another step in Meta’s aggressive push to power its expanding data center operations with clean energy, dispelling many of the complaints people have about them.
This new development is located near Cheyenne, Wyoming, and will feature a 365-megawatt (MW) solar farm paired with a 200 MW/1,600 megawatt-hour (MWh) battery energy storage system, also known as BESS. Tesla is providing the batteries for the project, valued at roughly $200 million.
The story was originally reported by Utility Dive.
This Wyoming project represents the first phase of Enbridge and Meta’s joint “Cowboy Project.” Once operational, it will deliver power to Meta’s regional data centers through Cheyenne Light, Fuel, and Power under Wyoming’s Large Power Contract Service tariff.
This tariff, originally developed in collaboration with Microsoft and Black Hills Energy, is designed specifically for large loads like data centers. It ensures that the renewable supply serves hyperscale customers without impacting retail electricity rates for other users.
The battery system will operate under a long-term tolling agreement, providing dispatchable capacity that enhances grid reliability. During periods of high demand, the utility can access the backup generation, addressing one of the key challenges of integrating large-scale renewables with the explosive growth of data center electricity demand driven by artificial intelligence.
This latest collaboration builds on prior joint efforts between Enbridge and Meta in Texas, including the 600 MW Clear Fork Solar, 152 MW Easter Wind, and 300 MW Cone Wind projects. Together with the Wyoming initiative, the companies have now partnered on roughly 1.6 gigawatts (GW) of combined solar, wind, and storage capacity.
The deal highlights the intensifying demand for reliable, low-carbon power from technology giants. Meta has committed to supporting its data center growth with renewable energy, joining peers like Microsoft and Google in seeking large-scale solutions. Enbridge’s Allen Capps described the project as “one of the larger utility-scale battery installations supporting U.S. data center operations and growth.”
The involvement of Tesla’s battery technology adds an intriguing layer, linking two of the world’s most prominent tech leaders—Zuckerberg and Musk—in the clean energy transition.
As data centers continue to drive unprecedented electricity load growth across the United States, projects like this one illustrate how hyperscalers are turning to strategic partnerships with traditional energy players and innovative storage solutions to meet both sustainability goals and reliability needs.
SpaceX has decided to stand down from what was supposed to be the first test launch of Starship’s v3 rocket tonight after a minor issue with a hydraulic pin delayed the flight once more.
The company scrubbed its first test flight of the upgraded Starship v3 on May 21 in the final minutes of the countdown. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk quickly took to social media platform X, explaining that a hydraulic pin on the launch tower’s “chopsticks” arm failed to retract properly.
Musk added that the company would fix the issue this evening. SpaceX will attempt another launch tomorrow night at 5:30 p.m. CT, 6:30 p.m. ET, and 3:30 p.m. PT.
The hydraulic pin holding the tower arm in place did not retract.
If that can be fixed tonight, there will be another launch attempt tomorrow at 5:30 CT. https://t.co/DJAdvDYQpH
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 21, 2026
The countdown for Starship Flight 12 — featuring the taller and more capable V3 stack with Booster 19 and Ship 39 — had been progressing smoothly until the late-stage issue surfaced. The Mechazilla tower arm, designed to secure the vehicle on the pad and eventually catch returning boosters, could not complete its retraction sequence.
SpaceX teams immediately began troubleshooting the hydraulic system for an overnight repair.
Starship V3 introduces several significant upgrades over earlier versions. These include greater propellant capacity, more powerful Raptor 3 engines, larger grid fins, enhanced heat shielding, and an improved fuel transfer system.
We covered the changes that were announced just days ago by SpaceX:
SpaceX unveils sweeping Starship V3 upgrades ahead of May 19 launch
The changes are intended to increase payload performance, support higher flight rates, and advance the vehicle toward operational missions, including Starlink deployments, NASA Artemis lunar landings, and future crewed Mars flights. The debut flight from Starbase’s new Launch Pad 2 marked an important milestone in scaling up the fully reusable Starship system.
This stand-down highlights the intricate challenges of preparing the world’s most powerful rocket for flight. Despite extensive pre-launch checks, a single component in the ground support equipment can force a scrub.
The incident aligns with Starship’s proven iterative development approach. Previous test flights have encountered both successes and setbacks, each providing critical data that refines hardware and procedures. Some outlets may call some of these flights “failures,” when in reality, they are all opportunities for SpaceX to learn for the next attempt.
With V3, SpaceX aims to reduce ground-system dependencies and increase launch cadence to meet ambitious long-term goals.
NASA just gave SpaceX more crew missions because Boeing can’t certify
Elon Musk called it Epic: The full story of SpaceX’s Starship Flight 12
