US regulators review responses to safety questions for Tesla (TSLA.US) Robotaxi's “final check”

The Zhitong Finance App learned that the US Highway Safety Supervisory Authority is reviewing Tesla (TSLA.US)'s response to the safety of its autonomous taxis (Robotaxis) in bad weather conditions. The agency said on Friday that the move was based on its plan to deploy these vehicles as soon as possible this weekend. Tesla has invited a small group of people to participate in limited testing in Austin, Texas, which is initially scheduled to begin Sunday, according to social media posts and email screenshots.

In a letter last month, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) asked Tesla to answer a series of detailed questions by June 19 to evaluate the performance of the electric car manufacturer's vehicles equipped with fully autonomous driving technology in bad weather conditions and evaluate its plans to launch a paid autonomous taxi service in Austin. The agency said it has received a response from Tesla and is reviewing it. Once the review is complete, the public records will be updated.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. According to these invitations, Tesla will have an employee sit in the front passenger seat to accompany the passengers. The post also mentioned that NHTSA asked if Tesla would “supervise or monitor” the vehicle in real time.

Since October of last year, NHTSA has been investigating Tesla's fully autonomous driving accident under low visibility conditions. The survey covered 2.4 million Tesla vehicles equipped with fully autonomous driving technology, after four previous accidents, including one fatal accident in 2023.

The agency said in May that it was seeking more information on Tesla's development of autonomous taxis “to assess the responsiveness of Tesla systems in low visibility conditions” and details on plans to deploy autonomous taxis and the technology used.

NHTSA said in May it wanted to know how many vehicles would be used as autonomous taxis and the expected timeline for autonomous driving technology to provide availability for non-Tesla-controlled vehicles.

The NHTSA letter asked Tesla to describe how it intends to ensure the safety of autonomous driving operations under low visibility conditions such as sun glare, fog, rising dust, rain, or snow. The agency also wanted to know how to deal with poor visibility while driving.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said that in this test he will focus on safety, and humans will remotely monitor the vehicle at that time.