Tesla responds to government regulators looking for answers

Tesla is being questioned by the NHTSA, again.

Jun 22, 2025 - 16:32

Tesla responds to government regulators looking for answers

Tesla (TSLA) is set to officially debut the robotaxi in Austin, Texas, any day.

Nearly a decade after CEO Elon Musk first mentioned the concept of autonomous Teslas making passive income for their owners, the first Tesla robotaxis are supposed to be operational by the end of the month.

Self-driving Teslas have already been spotted on city streets with a human riding shotgun ahead of the program's official launch.

This week, Tesla confirmed that humans will be a part of the autonomous rollout at least for now, as it plans to have a

But the road to this moment hasn't been easy for the company's “safety monitor” sitting in the front seat during drives.

Waymo tested its vehicles for six months with a driver and for six months without one in Austin before it launched its commercial service earlier this year,

These safety checks are necessary because this technology will guide electric vehicles, which, thanks to their battery motors, are the heaviest and, therefore, potentially most dangerous vehicles on the road.

So as part of the safety review process for the vehicles, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sent Tesla a few detailed questions that the company was supposed to answer by June 19.

The agency received Tesla's response this week, according to a new report.

Tesla FSD is just days away from launching.
Image source: CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images

Tesla responds to government regulators looking for answers

The NHTSA is reviewing Tesla's answers to a series of questions it sent about its robotaxi launch in Austin.

A spokesperson for the agency told Reuters that it is "in the process of reviewing it. Once our review has been completed, the public file will be updated."

Since October, the NHTSA has investigated Tesla full self-driving collisions in reduced roadway visibility situations. That investigation is centered on the software's ability to detect and respond to reduced visibility situations like fog, sun glare, and airborne dust.

The review was prompted by four crashes involving Teslas driven by FSD, including one that involved a fatality.

Earlier this month, Musk tweeted that the FSD version in the robotaxi is a "new version of the software" that is a "more advanced model in alpha stage that has ~4X the params, but still requires a lot of polishing."

This version is not available to current FSD users, so the NHTSA is not investigating this per se.

However, the questionnaire sent to Tesla is focused on the robotaxi version of the tech and is presumably tied to its ongoing investigation.

Tesla FSD is already under investigation for a fatal crash

While the questions the NHTSA asked Tesla about the robotaxi launch in Austin are not public, the questions it asked about the FSD crashes are.

The agency wanted information about the make and model of the vehicles, as well as the cumulative mileage covered by the vehicles, separated by mode and model.

The thorough questionnaire asks for info on everything from after-market modifications to whether any warnings or alerts were given before the crash.

Overall, there are over 100 questions Tesla had to answer.

Tesla must first prove that its camera-based Full Self-Driving software is capable of navigating complex urban environments in Austin.

“Consumers are skeptical of the full self-driving (FSD) technology that undergirds the robotaxi proposition, with 60% considering Tesla’s full self-driving 'unsafe,' 77% unwilling to utilize full self-driving technology, and a substantial share (48%) believing full self-driving should be illegal,” the May 2025 edition of the Electric Vehicle Intelligence Report (EVIR) said.