Tesla seeks to keep Texas robotaxi

24/6/2025 6:08

Tesla told U.S.

regulators that its answers to questions on the safety of its

robotaxi deployment in Texas are confidential business

information and should not be made public, according to a letter

released on Monday.

On Friday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

said it was reviewing answers given in response to the agency's

questions about the safety of its self-driving robotaxi in poor

weather among numerous issues.



The agency said on Monday that Tesla was invoking a federal

law that "restricts NHTSA’s ability to publicly release what the

companies label as confidential." The agency added that

"following an assessment of these responses and other relevant

information, NHTSA will take any necessary actions to protect

road safety."

NHTSA has been investigating since October collisions of Tesla

vehicles using Full Self-Driving software under conditions of

reduced visibility. The probe covers 2.4 million Tesla vehicles

equipped with FSD technology after four reported collisions,

including a 2023 fatal crash.



NHTSA noted on Monday that "the agency’s investigation into

Tesla’s FSD-Supervised/Beta remains open."



Tesla said the information it submitted to NHTSA is

commercially valuable because competitors could use it to

improve their own advanced driver assistance and automated

driving systems.



"Nefarious actors could also use the marked information to

smear Tesla's brand for the sake of notoriety," Tesla regulatory

senior counsel Casey Blaine wrote in the letter to the NHTSA.

"Absent public disclosure, access to the marked information and

all of the knowledge gained from it would require significant

expenditure of time and resources and very intimate knowledge

about Tesla."

On Sunday, Tesla deployed a small group of self-driving taxis

picking up paying passengers in Austin, Texas, with CEO Elon

Musk announcing what he called the robotaxi launch and

social-media influencers posting videos of their first rides.



The event marked the first time Tesla cars without human

drivers have carried paying riders, a business that Musk sees as

crucial to the EV maker's financial future.



Tesla shares were up 8% at $347.80 on Monday afternoon.