Tesla will give the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) access to FSD Beta, according to a recent tweet from Elon Musk. Elon responded to a tweet from @WholeMarsBlog who pointed out that even the NHTSA was complaining about having to participate in the safety score process that all of Tesla’s FSD Beta testers have to do.
🤣 ok we’ll turn it on
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 16, 2022
In the tweet, @WholeMarsBlog shared a screenshot of a letter from the agency to Tesla that read:
“As you know, NHTSA owns a Tesla vehicle with the FSD option.”
“With over 700 miles of driving this year and a Safety Score of 99 (including a score of 100 for the most recent 107 miles on January 21), we have not received the OTA update to fully enable FSD in our vehicle.”
“We request some of your time and expertise to asses our situation and help us understand what additional steps we might need to take.”
The letter was dated in January 2022 but is now being brought into the public spotlight on Twitter. This comes after some drama over the weekend. The CEO of Green Hills Software and founder of the Dawn Project, Dan O’Dowd, has been relentlessly campaigning against Tesla’s FSD Beta. The billionaire has recently published television ads claiming that Tesla’s FSD Beta is not stopping for children.
These claims have been debunked several times over the weekend and I wrote about two instances. In the first one, I interviewed @TeslaDriver2022 who performed a test with child-sized Amazon boxes.
“The FSD Beta has just been getting better exponentially even since I’ve been using it. Just some of the predictions it’s got and the capabilities to understand when things are getting in their path. Not even that. Some of the most impressive stuff is just when I’m driving down the road at 45 miles an hour and there’s a car that will turn in front of me to get into a parking lot.
“Its ability to understand whether or not that car is gonna make it or not and whether or not it needs to slow down. It’s becoming very human-like.”
In the second article, @WholeMarsBlog tested FSD Beta on a child-sized mannequin and allowed Tad Park to test it on his son. In each test, FSD Beta recognized and stopped for pedestrians. He told me that the test showed that FSD Beta has no problem detecting pedestrians of all ages.
However, critics claim that the Tesla owners are vile for testing it on their children, yet are refusing to acknowledge that O’Dowd’s claims were disproven. The idea of testing such software on a child may seem horrifying to those who don’t understand the software or know how to drive.
A father who loves his child would quickly take over and brake if the software were to refuse to stop. And in the video, you can see clearly see the screen recognizing the child and stopping at a very safe distance.
In O’Dowd’s videos, the screen is hard to see and you can see some type of error message as the driver refuses to disengage. Many in the Tesla community have pointed out that the driver was accelerating. If this is the case, then FSD Beta would have to allow the driver to take over. This includes acceleration.
Aka, something like "Accelerator pedal is pressed – car will not brake" or "Front camera blocked or blinded".
Why do you keep driving with errors? Why do you keep "coincidentally" posting videos with them too blurry to read?
People have been asking you this from Day 1, Dan.
— Nafnlaus 🇮🇸🇺🇦 (@enn_nafnlaus) August 15, 2022
With Tesla granting the NHTSA access to FSD Beta, the agency will most likely do testing of its own. This, I think would be a very good thing considering that the agency and its employees aren’t running for political office for the sole reason of taking down Elon Musk.
The agency and Tesla may have gone head to head a few times, however, safety is important for both Tesla and the NHTSA so it makes sense to grant the agency FSD Beta for its vehicle.
Disclaimer: Johnna is long Tesla.
I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or see a typo, you can email me at johnna@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @JohnnaCrider1
Elon Musk
Elon Musk takes latest barb at Bill Gates over Tesla short position
Bill Gates placed a massive short bet against Tesla of ~1% of our total shares, which might have cost him over $10B by now
Elon Musk took his latest barb at former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates over his short position against the company, which the two have had some tensions over for a number of years.
Gates admitted to Musk several years ago through a text message that he still held a short position against his sustainable car and energy company. Ironically, Gates had contacted Musk to explore philanthropic opportunities.
Elon Musk explains Bill Gates beef: He ‘placed a massive bet on Tesla dying’
Musk said he could not take the request seriously, especially as Gates was hoping to make money on the downfall of the one company taking EVs seriously.
The Tesla frontman has continued to take shots at Gates over the years from time to time, but the latest comment came as Musk’s net worth swelled to over $600 billion. He became the first person ever to reach that threshold earlier this week, when Tesla shares increased due to Robotaxi testing without any occupants.
Musk refreshed everyone’s memory with the recent post, stating that if Gates still has his short position against Tesla, he would have lost over $10 billion by now:
Bill Gates placed a massive short bet against Tesla of ~1% of our total shares, which might have cost him over $10B by now
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 17, 2025
Just a month ago, in mid-November, Musk issued his final warning to Gates over the short position, speculating whether the former Microsoft frontman had still held the bet against Tesla.
“If Gates hasn’t fully closed out the crazy short position he has held against Tesla for ~8 years, he had better do so soon,” Musk said. This came in response to The Gates Foundation dumping 65 percent of its Microsoft position.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk sends final warning to Bill Gates over short position
Musk’s involvement in the U.S. government also drew criticism from Gates, as he said that the reductions proposed by DOGE against U.S.A.I.D. were “stunning” and could cause “millions of additional deaths of kids.”
“Gates is a huge liar,” Musk responded.
It is not known whether Gates still holds his Tesla short position.
Tesla made a change to the Cybertruck, and nobody noticed. But to be fair, nobody could have, but it was revealed by the program’s lead engineer that it was aimed toward simplifying manufacturing through a minor change in casting.
After the Cybertruck was given a Top Safety Pick+ award by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), for its reputation as the safest pickup on the market, some wondered what had changed about the vehicle.
Tesla makes changes to its vehicles routinely through Over-the-Air software updates, but aesthetic changes are relatively rare. Vehicles go through refreshes every few years, as the Model 3 and Model Y did earlier this year. However, the Cybertruck is one of the vehicles that has not changed much since its launch in late 2023, but it has gone through some minor changes.
Most recently, Wes Morrill, the Cybertruck program’s Lead Engineer, stated that the company had made a minor change to the casting of the all-electric pickup for manufacturing purposes. This change took place in April:
We made a minor change on the casting for manufacturability in April. Our Internal testing shows no difference in crash result but IIHS only officially tested the latest version
— Wes (@wmorrill3) December 17, 2025
The change is among the most subtle that can be made, but it makes a massive difference in manufacturing efficiency, build quality, and scalability.
Morrill revealed Tesla’s internal testing showed no difference in crash testing results performed by the IIHS.
The 2025 Cybertruck received stellar ratings in each of the required testing scenarios and categories. The Top Safety Pick+ award is only given if it excels in rigorous crash tests. This requires ‘Good’ ratings in updated small and moderate overlap front, side, roof, and head restraints.
Additionally, it must have advanced front crash prevention in both day and night. Most importantly, the vehicle must have a ‘Good’ or ‘Acceptable’ headlights standard on all trims, with the “+ ” specifically demanding the toughest new updated moderate overlap test that checks rear-seat passenger protection alongside driver safety.
Tesla has entered an interesting situation with its Full Self-Driving suite in California, as the State’s Department of Motor Vehicles had adopted an order for a suspension of the company’s sales license, but it immediately put it on hold.
The company has been granted a reprieve as the DMV is giving Tesla an opportunity to “remedy the situation.” After the suspension was recommended for 30 days as a penalty, the DMV said it would give Tesla 90 days to allow the company to come into compliance.
The DMV is accusing Tesla of misleading consumers by using words like Autopilot and Full Self-Driving on its advanced driver assistance (ADAS) features.
The State’s DMV Director, Steve Gordon, said that he hoped “Tesla will find a way to get these misleading statements corrected.” However, Tesla responded to the story on Tuesday, stating that this was a “consumer protection” order for the company using the term Autopilot.
It said “not one single customer came forward to say there’s a problem.” It added that “sales in California will continue uninterrupted.”
This was a “consumer protection” order about the use of the term “Autopilot” in a case where not one single customer came forward to say there’s a problem.
Sales in California will continue uninterrupted.
— Tesla North America (@tesla_na) December 17, 2025
Tesla has used the terms Autopilot and Full Self-Driving for years, but has added the term “(Supervised)” to the end of the FSD suite, hoping to remedy some of the potential issues that regulators in various areas might have with the labeling of the program.
It might not be too long before Tesla stops catching flak for using the Full Self-Driving name to describe its platform.
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
The Robotaxi suite has continued to improve, and this week, vehicles were spotted in Austin without any occupants. CEO Elon Musk would later confirm that Tesla had started testing driverless rides in Austin, hoping to launch rides without any supervision by the end of the year.
Elon Musk takes latest barb at Bill Gates over Tesla short position
Tesla Cybertruck gets small change that makes a big difference
