Document ID: NHTSA-2020-0099-0001
Agency: nhtsa
Document Type: Notice
Title: Petition for Decision of Inconsequential Noncompliance: Tesla, Inc.
Posted Date: 2021-01-19T05:00Z

[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 11 (Tuesday, January 19, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 5311-5313]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-01088]

=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

[Docket No. NHTSA-2020-0099; Notice 1]

Tesla, Inc., Receipt of Petition for Decision of Inconsequential 
Noncompliance

AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 
Department of Transportation (DOT).

ACTION: Receipt of petition.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: Tesla, Inc. (Tesla) has determined that certain Model Year 
(MY) 2012-2020 Tesla motor vehicles do not fully comply with Federal 
Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 101, Controls and Displays. 
Tesla filed a noncompliance report dated September 24, 2020. Tesla 
subsequently petitioned NHTSA on September 25, 2020, and later provided 
supplemental information on October 23, 2020, for a decision that the 
subject noncompliance is inconsequential as it relates to motor vehicle 
safety. This notice announces receipt of Tesla's petition.

DATES: Send comments on or before February 18, 2021.

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit written data, 
views, and arguments on this petition. Comments must refer to the 
docket and notice number cited in the title of this notice and 
submitted by any of the following methods:
     Mail: Send comments by mail addressed to the U.S. 
Department of Transportation, Docket Operations, M-30, West Building 
Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 
20590.
     Hand Delivery: Deliver comments by hand to the U.S. 
Department of Transportation, Docket Operations, M-30, West Building 
Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 
20590. The Docket Section is open on weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 
except for Federal holidays.
     Electronically: Submit comments electronically by logging 
onto the Federal Docket Management System (FDMS) website at https://www.regulations.gov/. Follow the online instructions for submitting 
comments.
     Comments may also be faxed to (202) 493-2251.
    Comments must be written in the English language, and be no greater 
than 15 pages in length, although there is no limit to the length of 
necessary attachments to the comments. If comments are submitted in 
hard copy form, please ensure that two copies are provided. If you wish 
to receive confirmation that comments you have submitted by mail were 
received, please enclose a stamped, self-addressed postcard with the 
comments. Note that all comments received will be posted without change 
to https://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information 
provided.
    All comments and supporting materials received before the close of 
business on the closing date indicated above will be filed in the 
docket and will be considered. All comments and supporting materials 
received after the closing date will also be filed and will be 
considered to the fullest extent possible.
    When the petition is granted or denied, notice of the decision will 
also be published in the Federal Register pursuant to the authority 
indicated at the end of this notice.
    All comments, background documentation, and supporting materials 
submitted to the docket may be viewed by anyone at the address and 
times given above. The documents may also be viewed on the internet at 
https://www.regulations.gov by following the online instructions for 
accessing the docket. The docket ID number for this petition is shown 
in the heading of this notice.
    DOT's complete Privacy Act Statement is available for review in a 
Federal Register notice published on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477-78).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

[[Page 5312]]

I. Overview

    Tesla has determined that certain MY 2012-2020 Tesla Model S, Tesla 
Model X, Tesla Model 3, and Tesla Model Y motor vehicles do not fully 
comply with the requirements of paragraph S5.2.1 (Table 1) of FMVSS No. 
101, Controls and Displays (49 CFR 571.101). Tesla filed a 
noncompliance report dated September 24, 2020, pursuant to 49 CFR 573, 
Defect and Noncompliance Responsibility and Reports. Tesla subsequently 
petitioned NHTSA on September 25, 2020 for an exemption from the 
notification and remedy requirements of 49 U.S.C. Chapter 301 on the 
basis that this noncompliance is inconsequential as it relates to motor 
vehicle safety, pursuant to 49 U.S.C. 30118(d) and 30120(h) and 49 CFR 
556, Exemption for Inconsequential Defect or Noncompliance. Tesla also 
provided supplemental information related to the petition on October 
23, 2020.
    This notice of receipt of Tesla's petition is published under 49 
U.S.C. 30118 and 30120 and does not represent any Agency decision or 
other exercise of judgment concerning the merits of the petition.

II. Motor Vehicles Involved

    Approximately 612,065 MY 2012-2020 Tesla Model S, Tesla Model X, 
Tesla Model 3, and Tesla Model Y motor vehicles, manufactured between 
December 1, 2011, and August 31, 2020, are potentially involved.

III. Noncompliance

    Tesla explains that the noncompliance is that the subject motor 
vehicles are equipped with speedometers that can be switched by the 
operator to display the vehicle's speed in units of either miles per 
hour (MPH) or kilometers-per-hour (km/h) and therefore, do not meet the 
requirements set forth in paragraph S5.2.1 and Table 1, Column 3 of 
FMVSS No. 101.

IV. Rule Requirements

    Paragraph S5.2.1 and Table 1, Column 3 of FMVSS No. 101 includes 
the requirements relevant to this petition. Each passenger car, 
multipurpose passenger vehicle, truck, and bus that is fitted with a 
control, a telltale, or an indicator listed in Table 1 or Table 2 of 
FMVSS No. 101 must meet the requirements for the location, 
identification, color, and illumination of that control, telltale, or 
indicator. Each control, telltale, and indicator that is listed in 
column 1 of Table 1 or Table 2 must be identified by the symbol 
specified for it in column 2 or the word or abbreviation specified for 
it in column 3 of Table 1 or Table 2. Specifically, the speedometer 
must only allow the speed to be displayed in ``MPH, or MPH and km/h.''

V. Summary of Tesla's Petition

    The following views and arguments presented in this section, ``V. 
Summary of Tesla's Petition,'' are the views and arguments provided by 
Tesla. They have not been evaluated by the Agency and do not reflect 
the views of the Agency. Tesla describes the subject noncompliance and 
contends that the noncompliance is inconsequential as it relates to 
motor vehicle safety.
    In support of its petition, Tesla offers the following reasoning:
    1. All affected vehicles are originally configured to display speed 
in mph and are delivered for first sale in the United States market in 
a compliant state. Because distance is most commonly measured in the 
United States in Imperial units (including mph), the majority of owners 
will continue to operate their vehicle using the factory-configured 
unit displayed (i.e., with the speed displayed in mph) and are unlikely 
to ever attempt to change to metric units.
    2. Only through driver interaction within the display settings menu 
can the unit of measurement be changed from miles to kilometers. This 
change must be done intentionally and cannot be accomplished 
inadvertently.
    3. When the display is set to kilometers, the indicated vehicle 
speed in km/h is 1.6 times greater than the speed in mph. As a result, 
if a vehicle operator changes the display to indicate km/h and later 
forgets or neglects to change the display back to mph, they (or a 
subsequent operator) would be more likely to travel at a slower speed 
rather than a faster speed. Moreover, because the operator will be able 
to easily recognize that the vehicle is moving at a lower speed than 
intended, they will likely adjust their vehicle speed to match road and 
traffic conditions.
    4. If the vehicle operator has set the display to kilometers, all 
functions relying on, or otherwise tied to, the speed limit (e.g., 
Traffic Aware Cruise Control and Speed Assist) will convert mapped data 
from mph to km/h, resulting in the vehicle speed automatically matching 
the appropriate speed limit even though the display is km/h.
    5. If the vehicle operator needs to change the display back from 
km/h to mph, the method for doing so can be easily located in the 
display menu and is not buried in sub-menus.
    6. If the operator nevertheless has difficulty finding the menu to 
change the unit setting within the center display, instructions are 
available in the Owner's Manual. For example, in the chapter on 
Controls in the Model 3 Owner's Manual, there are instructions on how 
to navigate the menu and an explanation that within the ``Display'' 
menu, there is a ``Distance'' toggle that allows operators to ``Choose 
to display miles or kilometers for range, speed, energy, trip meters, 
map searches, and navigation routes.''
    7. On September 1, 2020, factory firmware release 2020.28.102.2 was 
introduced in production, updating the speedometer units to display km/
h and mph when the display distance is set to kilometers. The change 
was also included in firmware release 2020.36.11, which began rolling 
out to field vehicles on or about September 16, 2020, so all vehicles 
accepting the update (and future updates) will receive compliant 
speedometer units. Tesla expects a majority of vehicles will have the 
update completed within a few weeks and expects nearly all vehicles to 
have completed the update within 6 months.
    8. To date, Tesla has not received any reports of loss of control, 
collision, injury or fatality, property damage, or fire related to this 
issue.
    9. Finally, Tesla notes that NHTSA has recently granted two 
petitions for inconsequential treatment involving speedometer unit 
display noncompliances, both of which involved a km/h display that did 
not also display mph. See, e.g., Volkswagen Group of America, Inc., 
Grant of Petition for Decision of Inconsequential Noncompliance, 85 FR 
39675 (July 1, 2020); BMW of North America, LLC, Grant of Petition for 
Decision of Inconsequential Noncompliance, 80 FR 61884 (Oct. 14, 2015). 
Because this issue is identical to the noncompliances in those cases, 
NHTSA should grant this petition for the same reasons.
    10. In Tesla's supplemental materials they stated that the display 
setting has been corrected in production, as of September 1, 2020. 
Tesla states that more than 75 percent of the affected U.S. vehicles 
have accepted the firmware update released on September 16, 2020.
    Tesla concludes by again contending that the subject noncompliance 
is inconsequential as it relates to motor vehicle safety, and that its 
petition to be exempted from providing notification of the 
noncompliance, as required by 49 U.S.C. 30118, and a remedy for the 
noncompliance, as required by 49 U.S.C. 30120, should be granted.
    NHTSA notes that the statutory provisions (49 U.S.C. 30118(d) and

[[Page 5313]]

30120(h)) that permit manufacturers to file petitions for a 
determination of inconsequentiality allow NHTSA to exempt manufacturers 
only from the duties found in sections 30118 and 30120, respectively, 
to notify owners, purchasers, and dealers of a defect or noncompliance 
and to remedy the defect or noncompliance. Therefore, any decision on 
this petition only applies to the subject vehicles that Tesla no longer 
controlled at the time it determined that the noncompliance existed. 
However, any decision on this petition does not relieve vehicle 
distributors and dealers of the prohibitions on the sale, offer for 
sale, or introduction or delivery for introduction into interstate 
commerce of the noncompliant vehicles under their control after Tesla 
notified them that the subject noncompliance existed.

    Authority: 49 U.S.C. 30118, 30120: delegations of authority at 
49 CFR 1.95 and 501.8.

Otto G. Matheke III,
Director, Office of Vehicle Safety Compliance.
[FR Doc. 2021-01088 Filed 1-15-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-59-P