Tesla told regulators of crash 9 days later

A deadly crash involving a Tesla Motors sedan that had its automated steering function engaged has thrust the Silicon Valley automaker's actions into the spotlight over whether it promptly disclosed the matter to federal regulators and investors.

Tesla Motors said Wednesday that it had notified U.S. auto-safety regulators about nine days after a deadly crash in which the driver was using the Model S vehicle's automated steering feature.

The company said it had informed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on May 16 about the May 7 accident that killed Ohio resident Joshua Brown. The report was relayed two days before the company raised nearly $1.5 billion in capital from investors, without mentioning the episode in offering documents.

"Tesla then provided NHTSA with additional details about the accident over the following weeks as it worked to complete its investigation, which it ultimately concluded during the last week of May," Tesla said in a statement.

The statement comes amid questions about whether the Palo Alto, Calif.-based electric-vehicle automaker disclosed the incident to investors promptly. After Fortune magazine raised questions about the company's decision not to reveal the matter publicly until June 30, Tesla CEO Elon Musk retorted that the accident was "not material" to Tesla's finances.

Elon Musk: Driver's death 'wasn't material' to Tesla finances

As it happens, Tesla said in a May 10 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it could face significant financial liabilities in the event of "any misuse or failures of new technologies that we are pioneering, including Autopilot in our vehicles." Autopilot is Tesla's name for the feature that allows its electric sedans and SUVs to drive themselves on highways.

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond who tracks automotive liability issues, said that Tesla's reporting to NHTSA appears "fairly timely" but that investors may object about their lack of knowledge about the matter.

Publicly traded companies like Tesla (TSLA) have an obligation to inform investors of major issues that could affect their finances.

"I'm certain investors could feel that this is a problem and they really weren't notified," he said. "It is raising questions about Autopilot and Tesla. It's uncharted waters, but it always seems like we're there with Tesla because they're on the cutting edge."

NHTSA is probing whether Brown's death was connected to the Autopilot feature that was activated in his Model S when he crashed into a truck.

Meanwhile, a second crash involving a Tesla vehicle is drawing scrutiny after reports surfaced that a Southfield, Mich., art gallery owner told police his 2016 Tesla Model X was in Autopilot mode when it crashed and rolled over on the Pennsylvania Turnpike last week.

Tesla said in a statement that it had collected "no data to suggest that Autopilot was engaged at the time of the incident" in Pennsylvania.

"Anytime there is a significant accident, Tesla receives a crash detection alert. As is our practice with all collisions, we immediately reached out to the customer to make sure he was safe. Until the customer responds, we are unable to further investigate," the company said.

Nevertheless, NHTSA says it has asked Pennsylvania State Police for information on that crash as well, and is seeking to "determine whether automated functions were in use at the time of the crash."

Tesla has billed the Autopilot system as the first real-world application of a partially self-driving feature. But the accident could dampen public enthusiasm for self-driving cars and draw attention from regulators. It may also call into question Tesla's introduction of the system in beta-test form.

Will concern over Tesla death close self-driving 'loophole'?

"It wasn't ready to go out on the road," Rosemary Shahan, president of the advocacy group Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, told USA TODAY this week. "If you have a system called Autopilot that cannot distinguish between the side of a truck and the open sky, it's not ready."

But Tesla said the fact that drivers have traveled 130 million miles with Autopilot enabled "lends credence to the safety of the system."

The intersection of self-driving vehicles with liability laws and disclosure requirements comes as NHTSA regulators are pushing for federal standards on self-driving cars to establish concrete boundaries for manufacturers and eliminate the prospect of a patchwork of state regulations.

As a matter of policy, NHTSA is trying to accelerate the development of self-driving cars, which U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has said could eventually eliminate roadway deaths.

"You want the technology to continue to develop. You don’t want to cut it off," Tobias said.

Contributing: Chris Woodyard of USA TODAY and Greg Gardner of the Detroit Free Press.

Follow USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey.