The original request was sent to Tesla on December 3 with a deadline of January 19—next Monday—with penalties of up to $27,874 per day (to a maximum of $139.4 million) for not complying.
However, the winter holiday period ate up two weeks of the six-and-a-bit weeks, and the company has had to simultaneously prepare two other information requests for other ongoing NHTSA probes, one due today, another on January 23rd, and yet another on February 4, the company told NHTSA. Identifying all the complaints and reports will take more time, Tesla said, as it found 8,313 items when it searched for traffic violations, and it can only process 300 a day to see which ones are relevant.
Answering the remaining questions on NHTSA’s list would require the above to be completed first, so Tesla asked for and was granted an extension until February 23.
Meanwhile, Tesla has changed how its driver assist cash cow contributes to the bottom line. Until now, Tesla owners had the option of buying the system outright for (currently) $8,000. Now, CEO Elon Musk says that option will go away on February 14. From then on, if a Tesla owner wants FSD, they’ll have to pay a $99 monthly fee to use it.