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Tesla has requested the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to keep its response to an earlier request about its robotaxi service confidential. The NHTSA had requested Tesla last month to share how it aims to evaluate the service for use on public roads. The firm's request came on Friday, ahead of yesterday's event, where it publicly unveiled its ridesharing service. Tesla's shares have gained 9% today as investors were finally able to see its robotaxi plans materialize to represent a significant portion of its valuation.
Tesla Says It Has To Keep Robotaxi Details Private To Avoid Competitive Harm
In a detailed request last month, the NHTSA had asked Tesla to explain if its autonomous driving system for the robotaxi service would resemble the Full Self Driving (FSD) assisted driving platform, which customers can subscribe to today. It also requested Tesla to demonstrate how its robotaxi met safety criteria, plans to monitor the robotaxi service while it was in use, the firm's procedures which allowed it to determine that robotaxi was safe to use on public roads and other details such as the number of cars that would be on the roads in the next 12 and 24 months.
The agency had also allowed Tesla to submit any confidential and proprietary data through a secure link and mark any such files accordingly. The last date to submit the response was Friday, and Tesla submitted its files as the week ended.
In its submission, the firm marked all files that the NHTSA had requested as confidential. Tesla counsel Casey Blaine outlined to the NHTSA that her firm typically treats the kind of information which it has submitted as confidential and does not release it for external consumption unless subject to a non-disclosure agreement.
Blaine adds that the information has to be treated as confidential since its release could harm her firm. The details Tesla has sumbitted to the NHTSA include details of its current level 2 autonomous driving platform and details of future level 4 systems as well as details of the firm's plans to deploy the robotaxi on public roads.
Tesla believes its competitors could use the information to improve their systems and test and commercialize them. According to the firm,, "nefarious actors" could use the details to "smear Tesla's brand for the sake of notoriety" to the firm's "detriment."
Tesla's shares are up by 9% today after yesterday's robotaxi event. The firm received a mixed response to the event from Wall Street, with some analysts praising the event while others deciding to wait on the sidelines and evaluate the service as it is launched and makes its way among users.
About the author: Ramish is a seasoned technology writer and editor with more than a decade of experience. He specializes in semiconductor fabrication and market analysis. With a background in finance and supply chain management - via his bachelors in Finance and a micromasters in supply chain management from MIT - Ramish combines financial rigor with deep industry insight to deliver accurate and authoritative coverage.
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