Before launching its Robotaxi service, Tesla received questions from the NHTSA. Now that it has responded, the company has asked the agency to keep its answers confidential.
Recently, Tesla’s Robotaxi service began operating in Austin, and almost immediately, the company decided it would prefer you didn’t see its homework. Before the launch, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) sent Tesla a letter with a deadline of June 19th to answer some questions.
Now that Tesla has replied, it has requested that the NHTSA withhold the entire response from the public, classifying it as confidential business information. This isn’t too surprising, as the company is notoriously secretive about its performance data, especially in areas like Autopilot and Full Self-Driving. Here are a few paraphrased versions of the questions Tesla faced:
How will the system handle bad weather or poor visibility?
What happens if the system detects that it cannot drive safely? Does it pull over?
Will a human be monitoring the cars remotely or in person?
Does the system follow any existing industry standards for autonomous driving?
When does Tesla plan to let other people operate their own cars as robotaxis?
The feds have good reason to ask.
