According to a letter made public on Monday and reported by Reuters, Tesla has told U.S. regulators that its responses concerning the safety of its autonomous robotaxi deployment in Texas are confidential business information and should not be released to the public.
The request comes after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said last Friday that it was reviewing Tesla’s answers to a series of questions, including the safety of its robotaxes in adverse weather conditions.
On Monday, the NHTSA stated that Tesla had invoked a federal law that “restricts the ability of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to publicly disclose information that companies have labeled as confidential.” The agency added that “after evaluating these responses and other relevant information, NHTSA will take all necessary actions to ensure road safety.”
The NHTSA has been investigating crashes involving Tesla vehicles using Full Self-Driving (FSD) software under low-visibility conditions since last October. The probe involves 2.4 million Tesla vehicles equipped with FSD technology and follows reports of four crashes, including one fatal incident in 2023. The agency reiterated on Monday that its investigation into Tesla’s FSD Beta/Supervised version is ongoing.
Tesla argues that the information submitted to the NHTSA is commercially valuable, as competitors could use it to improve their own advanced driver-assistance and autonomous systems. “Adversaries could also use this labeled information to tarnish Tesla’s brand for undue reputational gain,” wrote Casey Bryan, Tesla’s Senior Counsel for Regulatory Affairs, in the letter to the NHTSA. “Access to this marked information and all the knowledge derived from it would require significant time and resource investment and a very deep understanding of Tesla, unless publicly disclosed.”
On Sunday, Tesla began deploying a small fleet of robotaxes in Austin, Texas, carrying paying passengers for the first time without a human driver. CEO Elon Musk considers this business crucial to Tesla’s financial future. Following the news, Tesla’s stock rose 8% to $347.80 per share in afternoon trading on Monday.