The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is seeking detailed information from Tesla concerning its planned robotaxi deployment in Austin, Texas, slated for June 2025. The agency's primary concern revolves around the safety of Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology, especially in challenging conditions like fog, rain, and dust, as reported by Reuters.
Tesla is required to detail the number of vehicles to be deployed, the systems monitoring these vehicles, the sensors in use, and how these meet current industry standards. This move comes on the heels of some troubling incidents related to the company's self-driving system, including a fatal pedestrian accident in Arizona in 2023 and another involving a motorcyclist in Seattle in 2024.
The inquiry from NHTSA is the latest in a series of evaluations on Tesla's automated systems. In December 2023, Tesla executed a massive recall of over 2 million vehicles due to concerns over driver attentiveness under its Autopilot system. The effectiveness of that recall is still under assessment by the NHTSA. For now, Tesla has not yet responded to the questions posed by the agency.