WASHINGTON, Jan 31 Reuters Tesla Inc disclosed on Tuesday the U.S. Justice Department has sought documents related to its Full SelfDriving FSD and Autopilot driverassistance systems as regulatory scrutiny intensifies.

The automaker said in a filing it has received requests from the DOJ for documents related to Teslas Autopilot and FSD features.

Reuters reported in October Tesla is under criminal investigation over claims that the company39;s electric vehicles could drive themselves. Reuters said the U.S. Justice Department launched the probe in 2021 following more than a dozen crashes, some of them fatal, involving Autopilot.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has championed the systems as innovations that will both improve road safety and position the company as a technology leader.

Musk said at a recent Tesla conference call that full selfdriving is obviously getting better very rapidly.

A 2016 video that Musk promoted on Twitter as evidence that Tesla drives itself was staged to show capabilities like stopping at a red light that the system did not have, according to testimony by a senior engineer first reported by Reuters earlier this month.

Regulators are examining if Autopilot39;s design and claims about its capabilities provide users a false sense of security, leading to complacency behind the wheel with possibly fatal results.

Acting National Highway Traffic Safety Administration NHTSA chief Ann Carlson said…