Sens. Markey, Blumenthal Demand NHTSA Require Greater Transparency from Tesla, Autonomous Vehicle Companies

Letter Text (PDF)

Washington (June 16, 2026) - Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), member of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) today sent a letter to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Administrator Jonathan Morrison demanding that NHTSA properly and fully investigate Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology for safety risks. Tesla has claimed its FSD technology is safer than human driving, but the claims are based on misleading data analysis, such as comparing unlike crash outcomes, comparing new vehicles to the entire U.S. vehicle fleet, and relying on incomplete crash data.

In addition, autonomous vehicle companies are required to report little safety data to NHTSA, making it difficult for the vehicle safety regulator to regularly evaluate the companies' claims of safety performance. In the letter, the lawmakers urge NHTSA to expand its data reporting requirements for all companies and demanded answers about whether NHTSA has evaluated Tesla's flawed data analysis.

In the letter, the lawmakers wrote, "For years, [Elon] Musk has promised that Tesla vehicles would soon become fully autonomous, even though Tesla continues to warn that currently enabled FSD features - despite the misleading name - require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous. Tesla leaders have more recently used safety statistics to reinforce those promises. After Tesla's Austin robotaxi launch, its Chief Financial Officer reportedly claimed that a car using FSD was '10x safer' than a human-driven car, Tesla's Board Chair repeated that claim at a shareholder meeting, and Musk displayed a chart claiming '85% less crashes' based on a revised Tesla methodology. The broad nature of these statements suggests that Tesla has rigorous data to justify these claims. In fact, Tesla's safety claims appear to rest on methodological choices that systematically inflate FSD's apparent safety advantage."

The lawmakers continued, "Misleading safety statistics can encourage drivers to over-rely on FSD, obscure whether the technology is creating safety defects, and undermine NHTSA's ability to evaluate risks associated with vehicles already operating on public roads. The push to allow more autonomous vehicles on public roads depends heavily on the claim that these driving systems are safer than human drivers. To the extent that Tesla or other vehicle manufacturers are misleading the public about their safety data, however, consumers may choose to purchase or ride in an AV based on the unproven expectation that they are safer than non-autonomous vehicles. This type of information asymmetry is a classic market failure, which will likely result in more AVs on the road - and potentially more traffic injuries and fatalities if those systems are not in fact as safe as they claimed."

In addition to calling on NHTSA to expand its reporting requirements, the lawmakers requested answers by July 7, 2026, to questions including:

1. Has NHTSA independently evaluated Tesla's public FSD safety claims, including claims that FSD is seven or ten times safer than human driving, for statistical validity or methodological soundness?
2. Has NHTSA requested, as part of any ongoing investigation, that Tesla provide the underlying data, assumptions, crash definitions, exposure metrics, and methodology used to generate its public FSD safety statistics? If so, please provide the date of each request and describe Tesla's response.
3. Has NHTSA evaluated Tesla's use of a five-second disengagement window in its FSD safety calculations, despite the SGO's 30-second reporting window? If so, what conclusions has NHTSA reached?
4. Has NHTSA evaluated whether Tesla's reliance on automated telemetry may omit crashes or safety incidents when connectivity is unavailable or vehicle communication systems are damaged? If so, what conclusions has NHTSA reached?

Senator Markey is a leading advocate of comprehensive vehicle safety measures. In March, Senator Markey published a report detailing his monthslong investigation into the use of remote operators by autonomous vehicle companies. In January, Senator Markey introduced the AV Safety Data Act, legislation that would require NHTSA to mandate the reporting of vehicle miles traveled (VMT), unplanned stoppages, and injuries involving human drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists by autonomous vehicles (AVs). In December 2025, Senators Markey and Blumenthal introduced the Stay in Your Lane Act, legislation that would prohibit self-driving technology in cars from operating outside the road conditions and environment in which they were designed. In September 2025, Senators Markey and Blumenthal wrote to NHTSA urging the agency to investigate concerning reports of Tesla Full-Self Drive driving dangerously around railroad crossings. NHTSA later opened an investigation into the issue. In April 2024, Senators Markey and Blumenthal led their colleagues in a letter urging NHTSA to be highly cautious about letting autonomous vehicles onto public roads. Shortly after the letter, NHTSA opened an investigation into Tesla's dangerous autopilot system. The senators issued a statement praising the Biden administration's investigation.

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