The Trump transition team is reportedly looking to kill the requirement for Tesla to have to report its crashes involving Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features.
It probably has nothing to do with Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, being on Trump’s transition team.
NHTSA has a program that requires automakers to report crashes involving advanced driver assist systems (ADAS).
Reuters obtained a document that shows the Trump transition team is looking to kill this program:
The Trump transition team wants the incoming administration to drop a car-crash reporting requirement opposed by Elon Musk’s Tesla, according to a document seen by Reuters, a move that could cripple the government’s ability to investigate and regulate the safety of vehicles with automated-driving systems.
To be fair, most automakers are against any requirement to report, but Tesla is leading the effort here since its vehicles are involved in the vast majority of crashes reported through this program:
A Reuters analysis of the NHTSA crash data shows Tesla accounted for 40 out of 45 fatal crashes reported to NHTSA through Oct. 15.
NHTSA said that this reporting requirement is “crucial” to making sure ADAS systems are safe. It was also what led to the recall that forced Tesla to add more alerts to its Autopilot system to prevent misuses.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has often complained about NHTSA’s treatment of Tesla and the recalls, which are often just over-the-air software updates, that the agency forced on the automaker.
Musk is now working on Trump’s transition team after donating about $250 million to the President-Elect’s campaign.
Electrek’s Take
America; where corruption is done in broad daylight for everyone to see.
To be fair, Reuters said that it couldn’t link Musk directly to this policy change, but who are we kidding?
I know Tesla doesn’t like it, but NHTSA’s job is not to please Tesla. It’s to protect road users, and reporting crashes involving a rapidly evolving technology sounds sensible if that’s your mission.
It’s wild that the richest man in the world, who owns large stakes in several companies doing direct business with the US government or directly influenced by government policies, is literally on the President’s transition team.
And the funniest part is that they do things like this and claim that it is for the American people and not for their own pockets.