Tesla Swears Cybercab Meets Federal Safety Standards, But Doesn't Want You To Know How

So it marked its whole filing with the NHTSA confidential.

The Cybercab is an ambitious project for Tesla. It aims to achieve full autonomy, become the next big thing in robotaxis, and do it all without a steering wheel and pedals. The car is so ambitious, in fact, that on the day it launched, the NHTSA immediately began an investigation, wondering how Tesla could certify it for road use without those controls. Now, Tesla has answered the NHTSA — more formally, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration — but the company really doesn't want you to know what it said.

As we initially reported, Tesla had until September 30 to respond to the NHTSA's questions. It requested an eight-week extension, and the administration split the difference and told it to answer instead by October 30. That date has come and gone, and sure enough, the automaker did respond. The tricky part is that in its public response, Tesla offered one whole sentence. "The entirety of this file is confidential business information." That's right: Nothing to see here, folks. Move it along.

Self certified

The wildest part is that all of this is happening because automakers like Tesla get to self-certify that their cars meet or exceed Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. The September 10 Special Order from the NHTSA to Tesla included 21 requests about how it certified the Cybercab. Each is something Tesla must reply to, and do it under oath. Some of the questions here explain why the NHTSA has a bee in its bonnet.

For example, at one point, the order questions how Tesla met FMVSS 135, which states, "The service brakes shall be activated by means of a foot control." That seems kinda tough considering that the automaker is pretty open about it not having a foot control. Who knows? Maybe there's something hidden we don't know about, or maybe Tesla has a creative answer for that question.

The agency also wants to know about things like mirrors, turn signals that cancel through steering wheel rotation, and whether Tesla used temporary controls to certify the car. If it did, it could fly in the face of other regulations that say the automaker can't disable required safety equipment. The entire thing seems quite sticky for Tesla, and the fact that it doesn't want to release its answers to the public casts its own odd shadow on the operation.

Some details revealed

While it said basically nothing in one filing, Tesla did release a 30-page Cybercab first responder document in which it describes the car as "Not typically equipped with a steering wheel or acceleration and brake pedals." Is that an admission that one can install temporary controls when they want? We might not ever know. What is clear from the document is that first responders do have a way to move the car.

Evidently, they can show their badge to the camera in the B-pillar of the car, a Tesla rep can verify their credentials, and then a set of controls will pop up on the infotainment screen. Those controls don't make up for the lack of physical controls that the NHTSA is asking about, but hey, at least it's something.

For now, we'll just have to wait to see what happens next. If the administration accepts Tesla's arguments, it's possible the document never comes to light. If the NHTSA disagrees that the information is confidential business information, it has the right to make it public. That would certainly be interesting.