Section 9 of the Motor Vehicle Safety ActFootnote 1 provides the Minister of Transport with the authority to grant, by order, an exemption for a specified period, in accordance with any conditions specified in the order, for any model of vehicle manufactured or imported by the company from conformity with any standard if the requested exemption from that standard would, in the opinion of the Minister, promote the development of either new safety features that are equivalent to or superior to those that conform to prescribed standards, or new kinds of vehicles, technologies, vehicle systems or components.
Whereas the purpose of this exemption is to allow Tesla Motors Canada ULC (Tesla) to use a highly variable steer-by-wire system that does not have the minimum steering angle of ±270 degrees as required for testing.
Whereas I have concluded from the information provided in the application that an exemption from section 7.9.4 of Technical Standards Document No. 126, Electronic Stability Control Systems for Light Vehicles, incorporated by reference in subsection 126 (1) of Schedule IV to the Motor Vehicle Safety RegulationsFootnote 2, would promote the development of new kinds of vehicles, technologies, vehicle systems or components.
Whereas this exemption would not substantially diminish the overall safety performance of the vehicle model.
Therefore under section 9 of the Motor Vehicle Safety ActFootnote 3, I hereby make this Tesla Motors Canada ULC Exemption Order.
Tesla Motors Canada ULC Exemption Order
The Cybertruck model, manufactured or imported by Tesla, is exempt from section 7.9.4 of Technical Standards Document No. 126, Electronic Stability Control Systems for Light Vehicles, incorporated by reference in subsection 126 (1) of Schedule IV of the Motor Vehicle Safety RegulationsFootnote 4 subject to the following conditions:
- Tesla shall provide a semi-annual incident report. The report must be in writing, in either paper or electronic form and in the company’s official language of choice. Reporting will begin on January 18, 2025. The report must be filed with Transport Canada at ComplianceEngineering-Essaisdequipements@tc.gc.ca and contain the following information:
- a description of the nature of all steering system malfunctions and/or failures, both hardware and software, including the causes, where the customer engaged with a service center
- a description of the corrective measures taken in respect of the steering system malfunctions and/or failures reported in a), both hardware and software and how they were implemented
- A list of all customer complaints or comments with respect to the steering system’s steering angle and any impact on the performance of the electronic stability control (ESC) system
- Tesla shall immediately notify Transport Canada of any over-the-air (OTA) updates to the ESC system or the steering system’s steering angle with respect to its impact on the ESC system and include an explanation of the effect of the relevant OTA updates.
Validity
This exemption is in effect until July 18, 2029 at 23:59 EST.
Dated 18th of July, 2024
Melanie Vanstone
Director General
Multi-modal and Road Safety Programs