NHTSA's Formal Documentation Request on Model S

[Stoneymonster]

And for everyone getting upset about the Tesla request "leaking," as you can see these letters are publicly available.
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/owners/SearchDetails.action

As they should be. Much more of what our government does should be publicly accessible.

 

[J in MN]

Being in the medical device industry, I will say that the information being requested is pretty standard and rather limited in scope. If any less information was requested, I would've been disappointed, as that would indicate a less than thorough evaluation.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

Appears harsh but, Tesla would rather be taken through this "trial by fire", so to speak, by the NHTSA than run into more complications later.

I wonder if any of Tesla's docs are on "floppy disks"?!

 

[J in MN]

I wonder if any of Tesla's docs are on "floppy disks"?!

I think a lot of the anxiety expressed in this thread is because people didn't read any further than the definitions section that precede the actual information requests, and freaked out. But the requests themselves are pretty benign.

 

[brianman]

The request of all this information says to me that the NHTSA hasn't a clue what it's looking at, how it's built, or why it was able to sustain such fierce impacts, politely tell the driver to pull over before it shut itself down, and then do a rather 'controlled' burn of its damaged parts without ever compromising the passenger cabin. I'll stop there because it's against forum policy to say the rest that is on my mind.

I think you're reading too much into it. I think it's mostly form letter. Especially when there's such media drama (and political drama unrelated to cars entirely but regarding government agencies generally), all agencies are motivated to do whatever they can to be able to safely say "we did everything reasonable that we should and could to properly address the potential concerns".

 

[Krugerrand]

I think you're reading too much into it. I think it's mostly form letter. Especially when there's such media drama (and political drama unrelated to cars entirely but regarding government agencies generally), all agencies are motivated to do whatever they can to be able to safely say "we did everything reasonable that we should and could to properly address the potential concerns".

I will wholeheartedly agree with you if the KBA also requested exactly the same information in its entirety. :smile:

 

[jerry33]

If I had a choice between a car with a seat belt and buying a car without one, I wouldn't need a government mandate to pick the one with seat belts.

Well, Ford came out with seat belts before they were mandated and sales dropped because Joe Average didn't want them. I recall that my older relatives said they wouldn't wear them because seat belts caused more harm than good (and every one of them had an anecdotal story to justify their resistance). Even today many don't wear seat belts unless forced to. I often have to tell passengers to buckle up.

 

[Jhall118]

Well, Ford came out with seat belts before they were mandated and sales dropped because Joe Average didn't want them. I recall that my older relatives said they wouldn't wear them because seat belts caused more harm than good (and every one of them had an anecdotal story to justify their resistance). Even today many don't wear seat belts unless forced to. I often have to tell passengers to buckle up.

I stand corrected

 

[Doug_G]

Well, Ford came out with seat belts before they were mandated and sales dropped because Joe Average didn't want them. I recall that my older relatives said they wouldn't wear them because seat belts caused more harm than good (and every one of them had an anecdotal story to justify their resistance). Even today many don't wear seat belts unless forced to. I often have to tell passengers to buckle up.

Indeed, a common myth. http://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/seatbelt.asp

 

[FalconNinetyD]

Not exactly what you're asking for, but here's a letter to Porsche opening a PE into coolant loss. Essentially the same type of info as is being requested from Tesla, though I would say that the questions here are even more detailed and specific:

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/acms/cs/jaxrs/download/doc/UCM438484/INIM-PE13009-56309.pdf

My friend with a GT3 just had this happen to him at a PCA track event this weekend...