U.S. Senators Demand NHTSA Probe Into Tesla FSD Safety Claims

U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Edward Markey have called on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to investigate Tesla Inc. for allegedly exaggerating the safety of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) system. In a letter sent June 16, the senators characterized the company's claims as weak and misleading, alleging that Tesla used skewed metrics to suggest FSD is up to 10 times safer than human drivers. They set a July 7 deadline for NHTSA to disclose if it has independently verified these claims or requested raw crash data.

Similar controversies have emerged in Europe. A Reuters investigation revealed that Tesla presented these same disputed statistics to regulators in Sweden and the Netherlands. The data allegedly compared crash rates involving only airbag deployments against broad national averages that include minor fender-benders, while benchmarking new Teslas against an older average vehicle fleet. While the Dutch road authority (RDW) granted type approval for FSD in April 2026, it stated the decision relied on independent testing rather than Tesla's marketing data. The RDW is currently lobbying for EU-wide approval.

Other European agencies, including the Norwegian Public Roads Administration and the European Transport Safety Council, expressed skepticism, noting that the self-produced figures lack correlation with official statistics. Meanwhile, Tesla Taiwan has applied for FSD approval in Taiwan, noting the system is already available in 13 regions. Tesla also announced it will end the one-time purchase option for FSD on June 30.