Feds slap Tesla for boasting about crash test results

Tesla's announcement Tuesday that its Model S sedan received the highest scores ever in U.S. government crash tests has drawn a rebuke from U.S. safety officials for trampling the rules automakers typically follow for talking about safety. It's not that Tesla said anything factually wrong — it's that the government doesn't want automakers boasting too much about their scores.

In a note posted without fanfare on its website, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration did not mention Tesla by name, but clearly meant to rebut some of Tesla's fanfare, such as the company's statement that the results were the equivalent of 5.4 stars on a five-star scale.