NHTSA Sought Tesla Robotaxi Ride Last Month
[Stay on top of transportation news: .]
The U.S. safety regulator investigating the suite of features Tesla Inc. markets as Full Self-Driving has sought to test the carmaker’s recently launched driverless-taxi service, a sign of the close tabs authorities are keeping on the technology.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wrote to Tesla on July 1 about coordinating a visit to Austin last month for a ride. In the email from the director of the agency’s Office of Defects Investigation, which was uploaded to NHTSA’s website Aug. 7, regulators also sought information on the size of Tesla’s robotaxi fleet, plans for a public launch and the use of remote operators.
NHTSA didn’t specify whether staff did, in fact, ride in Tesla’s robotaxis last month. The agency said in another filing, dated Aug. 6, that it received Tesla’s response to the July 1 email last week, and that the information is subject to a request for confidential treatment.
The performance of Tesla’s robotaxis has been closely watched by investors since the long-promised service launched in June with a handful of vehicles in Austin. While CEO Elon Musk sees this eventually being a significant new revenue stream, Tesla initially limited the service to a small group of handpicked users friendly to the company.
Bloomberg reported in June that NHTSA was looking into incidents in which the robotaxis appeared to violate traffic laws during the company’s first day offering paid rides.
NHTSA opened its investigation into whether Tesla’s Full Self-Driving, or FSD, is defective after multiple crashes — one of which resulted in a fatality — in October of last year. Bloomberg reported in June on the circumstances of the November 2023 fatality, in which the driver a Model Y who had engaged FSD struck a 71-year-old pedestrian on the Arizona interstate between Flagstaff and Phoenix.
Want more news? Listen to today's daily briefing below or go here for more info:
