Former Ford CEO Weighs In On What's At Stake For Tesla As Autopilot System Investigations Unfold

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Monday announced it's investigating Tesla Inc's TSLA full-self-driving Autopilot system following a series of collisions between Tesla vehicles and emergency vehicles.

The investigation is rather significant as it is set to impact a large number of Tesla vehicles that have been produced, Former Ford Motor Co F CEO Mark Fields said Tuesday on CNBC's "Squawk Box."

The Tesla models being investigated include those made from 2014 to 2021, which represents over half of all the vehicles that Tesla has ever built, Fields said.

Related Link: Tesla Autopilot Probe Initiated By US Regulatory Agency: What You Need To Know

What's Next: The preliminary evaluation will last about four months. If the regulators decide to move forward following the initial evaluation, an engineering evaluation will take place, which could last about a year, Fields said. At that point in time, the regulators will decide whether or not the vehicles need to be recalled.

Depending on the findings, Tesla will either implement an "over the air" software update or potentially be forced to service the vehicles in person if the issue is with the semiconductor chip, Fields said. The latter would be a much more expensive recall.

Fields told CNBC other automakers will be paying close attention to the investigation. However, Tesla is the only self-driving system that relies on cameras alone, while all the other systems use some degree of LiDAR technology, he said.

TSLA Price Action: Tesla has traded as high as $900.40 and as low as $325.32 over a 52-week period.

The stock was down 4.3% at $656.12 at publication time.

Photo: courtesy of Tesla.