Trump transition team wants to eliminate car-accident reporting rules, which Elon Musk’s Tesla opposes

The Trump transition team wants the incoming administration to remove the car-crash reporting requirement opposed by Elon Musk’s Tesla, a move that would hamper the government’s ability to investigate and regulate the safety of vehicles, according to a document seen by Reuters. Can paralyze capacity. automated-driving systems,

Musk, the world’s richest man, spent more than a quarter billion dollars to help Trump get elected president in November. Removing the accident-disclosure provision would particularly benefit Tesla, which has reported the majority of accidents — more than 1,500 — to federal safety regulators under the program.

Tesla has been targeted in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigation, which includes three investigations stemming from the data.

The recommendation to eliminate the crash-reporting rule came from a transition team preparing a 100-day strategy for automotive policy. The document seen by Reuters shows the group called the measure a mandate for “excessive” data collection.

The Trump transition team, Musk and Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.

Reuters could not determine what role Musk may have played in preparing it. Transition-Team Recommendations Or the possibility that the administration will enact them. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group representing most major automakers except Tesla, has also criticized the requirement.

Reuters analysis of NHTSA crash data shows that Tesla was responsible for 40 of the 45 fatal crashes reported to NHTSA through October 15.

Among the Tesla crashes investigated by NHTSA under the provision was a 2023 fatal crash in Virginia where a driver was using the car “Autopilot” feature collided with a tractor-trailer and a California wreck The same year where an Autopilot Tesla hit a firetruck, killing the driver and injuring four firefighters.

NHTSA said in a statement that such data is critical to evaluating the safety of emerging automated-driving technologies. Two former NHTSA employees said the crash-reporting requirements were critical of the agency’s investigation of Tesla’s driver-assistance features, which led to the 2023 recall. Without the data, he said, NHTSA can’t easily detect crash patterns that highlight safety problems.

NHTSA said it has received and analyzed data on more than 2,700 crashes since the agency established the rule in 2021. NHTSA said the data affected 10 investigations at six companies, as well as nine safety recalls involving four different companies.

In one example, NHTSA fined General Motors-owned self-driving startup Cruise $1.5 million in September for failing to report a 2023 incident in which a vehicle struck a pedestrian and Was dragged, which was hit by another car. GM said it would happen this week End robotaxi development in Cruise and added it to his group working on driver-assistance technology.

crash reporting

NHTSA’s so-called standing general order requires automakers to report a crash if advanced driver-assist or autonomous-driving technologies were engaged within 30 seconds of impact, among other factors.

In addition to eliminating the reporting rule, the recommendations call for the administration to “liberalize” autonomous-vehicle regulation and create “ground rules to enable the growth” of the industry.

In an October Tesla earnings call, Musk called for “a federal approval process for autonomous vehicles” rather than a patchwork of state laws, which he called “incredibly painful” to navigate. He said he would use his position as a government-efficiency czar, as Trump had promised him, to push for such regulatory changes.

After the election, Trump nominated Musk to co-lead a newly created Department of Government Efficiency to advise from the “outside government” on cuts to federal staff, spending, and regulations.

More data, more crashes

Tesla is one of the most prominent automakers to develop advanced driver-assistance features, which can assist with lane changes, driving speed and steering.

Tesla’s Autopilot and “Full Self-Driving” systems, which are not fully autonomous, have come under intense scrutiny in lawsuits and a DOJ criminal investigation Investigating whether Tesla exaggerated the self-driving capabilities of its vehicles, misled investors and harmed consumers.

Two sources familiar with the thinking of Tesla executives told Reuters that Tesla disdains the crash-notification requirement, believing that NHTSA presents the data in a way that misleads consumers about the automaker’s safety.

According to a source, in recent years, Tesla executives discussed the need to eliminate the crash-reporting requirement with Musk. But because Biden officials expressed enthusiasm for the program, Tesla executives ultimately concluded they would need a change in administration to get rid of the requirements, according to the source.

Tesla views the rules as unfair because it believes it reports better data than other automakers, one source said, making it seem as if Tesla is responsible for a large number of crashes involving advanced driver-assistance systems. Is responsible.

NHTSA cautions that the data should not be used to compare the safety of one automaker against another because different companies collect information on crashes in different ways.

Bryant Walker Smith, a law professor at the University of South Carolina who focuses on autonomous driving, said Tesla collects real-time crash data that other companies do not and is likely “more likely to report its incidents” than other automakers. report a much higher proportion”.

Smith said the frequency of accidents involving driver-assistance technologies at Tesla is likely higher as more vehicles on the road are equipped with them and drivers engage the systems more frequently. That means vehicles can often “get into situations that they’re not able to deal with,” he said.