Tesla’s Cybercab is live in Austin. Now regulators in Washington are asking to check the EV maker’s homework.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, opened an audit investigation into Tesla’s Cybercab certification late Thursday.
The move came hours after Tesla’s commercial deployment of a small number of Cybercabs in Austin, joining its robotaxi network. Texas DMV Records list 45 Cybercabs registered with Tesla. The vehicle has yet to be made available for purchase to consumers.
“NHTSA fully supports the safe development and deployment of automated vehicles,” Jonathan Morrison, the agency’s administrator, wrote in a statement to Business Insider. “But as a federal regulator, we must ensure that all of our laws are followed.”
NHTSA’s announcement does not order Tesla to stop deploying Cybercab – the agency did not comment on the vehicle’s safety or compliance. Instead, NHTSA will examine Tesla’s technical data and the processes behind the automaker’s self-certification.
Automakers typically certify that their own vehicles meet federal regulations. Tesla told NHTSA that the Cybercab meets applicable federal safety standards.
The certification could yield Tricky questions for Teslagiven the current vehicle regulations. The Cybercab has no conventional human controls – such as a steering wheel, pedals or side mirrors – required by current federal safety standards.
NHTSA will investigate whether Tesla was correct in determining that some of these requirements do not apply to its automated vehicle.
Tesla isn’t the first company to take on the regulatory challenge of full autonomy. In July, NHTSA issued Zoox, owned by Amazon a temporary exemption to commercially deploy our own rudderless robot axis.
Tesla is taking a different route: It has stated that the Cybercab meets all applicable federal regulations, even as the NHTSA is still working to update the standards, including one for the brake pedalsfor driverless vehicles.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
