(Reuters) – The U.S. auto safety regulator closed its probe into 6,971 Fisker Ocean SUVs on Friday over inadvertent activation of the automatic emergency braking system, as it does not expect to get further information from the bankrupt EV maker.
Fisker filed for bankruptcy protection in June, citing a hyper-competitive EV market and operational challenges that hurt its ability to stem cash burn and raise additional funds.
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the company’s employees it was in touch with said late last month that all of the startup’s workers had been dismissed.
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“The closing of this investigation does not constitute a finding by NHTSA that a safety-related defect does not exist,” the regulator said, but it has no new information to take the probe further.
The regulator said it had received complaints alleging the automatic emergency braking system was triggered without an obstacle in the vehicle’s path, resulting in the car suddenly slowing down or coming to a halt, risking a crash.
Fisker has recalled thousands of its vehicles to resolve other issues, however, it has not taken a similar action to fix the issue related to this probe.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
