U.S. regulatory agency approves Tesla's second extension to submit FSD accident data until March 9

IT Home, February 24 — Tesla has received a second extension for the deadline to respond to the investigation by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) into traffic violations involving its vehicles equipped with the Full Self-Driving (FSD) system. This new document, marked with a deadline of February 20, 2026, pushes back the deadline for Tesla to submit key accident data (including videos, Event Data Recorder (EDR) files, and CAN bus files) to March 9, 2026. The original submission deadline was January 19.

After an initial five-week extension, Tesla was supposed to submit all data to NHTSA by today. However, on February 19 (the day before the deadline), the company requested another extension, which NHTSA approved the following day.

According to IT Home, on October 7, 2025, NHTSA initiated a preliminary assessment investigation (PE25012) after associating 58 accidents with vehicles equipped with the FSD system. The incidents involved running red lights, driving into oncoming lanes, and other behaviors. This investigation covers approximately 2.88 million Tesla vehicles.

By December of that year, the number of recorded violations surged by 60%, reaching 80 incidents, based on data from 62 owner complaints, 14 Tesla reports, and 4 media reports. On December 3, NHTSA sent Tesla a comprehensive information request, demanding data on consumer complaints, on-site reports, accidents, lawsuits, and internal assessments, with a response deadline of January 19, 2026.

Tesla failed to meet the deadline. On January 12, the automaker informed NHTSA that 8,313 records still required manual review, with an average processing rate of about 300 per day. Tesla complained that it was also cooperating with multiple other investigations (including delays in accident reports and door handle failures), which created an excessive workload and impacted response quality.

NHTSA subsequently approved a five-week extension, pushing the deadline to February 23, 2026. At that time, reports indicated that the agency considered this extension a “final grace period.”

This “final grace period” was not honored. According to the latest documents obtained by tech media Electrek, Tesla had two meetings with NHTSA in early February. The records of these meetings have been completely redacted, but on February 19 (just days before the February 23 deadline), Tesla submitted another extension request.

This time, Tesla specifically requested an extension for Item 4 in the NHTSA information request, which requires the submission of CAN bus data, EDR files, Performance Anomaly Reports (PAR), and video files related to the involved vehicles.

Tesla’s reason was that only after organizing the incident list related to Item 4 could the total number of files be determined. The company estimated it would complete the incident list by February 20, after which it could begin retrieving relevant data and generating readable files for submission.

NHTSA ultimately approved the extension until March 9, 2026. Other issues not covered by this extension still require Tesla to respond by the original January 19 deadline, meaning those materials should already have been submitted.

The documents clearly show that Tesla is still working to comply with NHTSA’s massive data request (603,138 records). The agency requires detailed timelines of traffic violations 30 seconds before each incident, the FSD software version involved, whether the driver received warnings, and whether the incidents resulted in collisions, injuries, or fatalities.

This investigation is not an isolated case. On January 22, Tesla launched a driverless ride-hailing service in Austin, Texas, using the same FSD system currently under federal investigation for traffic violations. According to NHTSA’s standard command data, since its launch in June 2025, the Austin fleet has experienced at least 14 accidents, with Tesla consistently editing out descriptions of all incidents citing trade secrets.

Meanwhile, a viral video from last week shows the FSD system attempting to drive the vehicle into a lake, with over a million views, further fueling public concerns about the reliability of the software.