In 2024, Tesla notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that the headlights on some 19,900 vehicles exceeded the maximum brightness allowed by law.
Rather than fix these blindingly bright EVs, a petition was logged weeks later that it shouldn’t have to, because the defect was “inconsequential” to safety. It took two years, but the feds have responded to Tesla’s appeal with a resounding “nice try.”
In 2022, GM tried to make a similar case. The headlights on SUVs were even further beyond the brightness limit than Tesla’s, but GM unsuccessfully argued that the error was “inconsequential” all the same.
