NHTSA May Be Requesting Data On Every Tesla Vehicle Made From 2014 To 2021

Tesla Inc TSLA is currently under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) due to its Autopilot system having crashed into emergency vehicles at least 11 times. New documents from NHTSA show it is looking for a lot of data.

A user on Twitter posted an excerpt from the documents that can be found directly on NHTSA's website. They seem to indicate the NHTSA is requesting data from all Tesla vehicles produced from 2014 to 2021. The NHTSA has "opened a Preliminary Evaluation ... to investigate crashes involving first responder scenes and vehicles manufactured by Tesla, Inc."

Later, the document says vehicles subject to the evaluation are "All Tesla vehicles, model years 2014-2021, equipped with the subject system at any time, and manufactured for sale or lease in the United States, including, but not limited to, the District of Columbia, and current U.S. territories and possessions."

While the messaging is a bit vague, it does sound like the data requested includes all cars with the "subject system," meaning autopilot, which includes every Tesla built since 2014. If the NHTSA receives this data, it will be a large amount to process and could take years. 

Either way, Tesla has a lot of data to provide and the NHTSA will most likely spend a long time looking at it. By the time a conclusion is reached, Tesla will have sent multiple software updates to its vehicles improving the capabilities. Hopefully one of those improvements will be specific identification and avoidance of first responder vehicles. 

Photo:  Courtesy of Tesla