The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has requested Tesla's internal document titled 'Radar Saves Us' as part of an ongoing investigation into Full Self-Driving crashes in low-visibility conditions.
NHTSA sent a 24-part information demand to Tesla on July 2 as part of Engineering Analysis EA26002. The probe covers about 3.2 million vehicles and nine crashes that occurred when FSD was engaged in reduced visibility, including sun glare, fog, and airborne dust. One crash resulted in a fatality and another in an injury.
The agency wants all internal communications, technical documentation, and data related to the 'Radar Saves Us' document, which Tesla previously submitted during an earlier phase of the investigation. Tesla must respond by August 12 or face potential civil penalties of up to $27,874 per day, with a cap near $139 million.
Additional requests seek details on 15 Tesla and Elon Musk marketing statements about FSD capabilities, a 2024 change to the 'FSD Degraded' alert, and internal systems for detecting when the vision-only setup fails. The investigation began as a preliminary evaluation and was upgraded in March.
