Every NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation action since the agency began posting them — Preliminary Evaluations (2,326), Engineering Analyses (1,930), Defect Petitions (502), Recall Queries (244), Audit Queries, Tire Investigations. These are the agency probes that often lead to recalls: Tesla autopilot investigations, Takata airbag EA, Ford fuel pump EA, GM ignition switch EA. Each record has the action number (AQ/PE/EA/RQ-prefix), open/close dates, affected makes + components + model years, manufacturer, subject, and summary text. Source: `static.nhtsa.gov/odi/ffdd/inv/FLAT_INV.zip` (4MB zipped → 389MB raw tab-delim). Distinct from `nhtsa_recalls` (formal recalls) and `nhtsa_complaints` (consumer reports).
Every record in this dataset can be traced back to its primary source at https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/owners/SearchSafetyIssues. Underlying content is a US federal government work (public domain under 17 USC §105); our derived data is licensed CC0 1.0.