Authored by Jarrett Renshaw, Rachael Levy, and Chris Kirkham
(Reuters) – The Trump transition team is advocating for the incoming administration to eliminate a car-crash reporting requirement that is opposed by Elon Musk’s Tesla (NASDAQ:), as per a document obtained by Reuters. This move could potentially hinder the government’s ability to investigate and regulate the safety of vehicles equipped with automated-driving systems.
Elon Musk, the wealthiest person in the world, contributed over a quarter of a billion dollars to help Trump win the presidential election in November. The removal of the crash-disclosure provision would specifically benefit Tesla, as the company has reported most of the crashes – totaling more than 1,500 – to federal safety regulators under the program. Tesla has faced scrutiny from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) through investigations, with three of them linked to the data.
The suggestion to eliminate the crash-reporting rule originated from a transition team assigned to develop a 100-day strategy for automotive policy. The group labeled the measure as a mandate for “excessive” data collection, as indicated in the Reuters document.
The Trump transition team, Musk, and Tesla have not provided comments on the matter.
It remains unclear whether Musk played a role in formulating the transition-team recommendations or the likelihood of the administration implementing them. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group representing most major automakers excluding Tesla, has also criticized the requirement for being burdensome.
An analysis by Reuters of the NHTSA crash data reveals that Tesla accounted for 40 out of 45 fatal crashes reported to NHTSA until October 15.
Several of the Tesla crashes investigated by NHTSA under the provision included a fatal accident in Virginia in 2023 where a driver using the car’s “Autopilot” feature collided with a tractor-trailer, and a California incident the same year where an Autopiloted Tesla struck a firetruck, resulting in the driver’s death and injuries to four firefighters.
NHTSA emphasized that such data is crucial for evaluating the safety of emerging automated-driving technologies. Former NHTSA employees highlighted that the crash-reporting requirements played a significant role in agency investigations into Tesla’s driver-assistance features that led to recalls in 2023. Without the data, they stated that NHTSA would struggle to identify crash patterns that highlight safety issues.
NHTSA disclosed that it has received and analyzed data from over 2,700 crashes since the rule was established in 2021. The data has influenced 10 investigations involving six companies, as well as nine safety recalls concerning four different companies.
In a specific case, NHTSA fined Cruise, the self-driving startup owned by General Motors (NYSE:), $1.5 million in September for failing to report a 2023 incident in which a vehicle struck and dragged a pedestrian who had been hit by another car. GM announced this week its decision to discontinue robotaxi development at Cruise and integrate it into the unit working on driver-assistance technology.
CRASH REPORTING
NHTSA’s standing general order mandates automakers to report crashes if advanced driver-assistance or autonomous-driving technologies were engaged within 30 seconds of impact, among other criteria.
In addition to scrapping the reporting rule, the recommendations propose for the administration to “liberalize” autonomous-vehicle regulation and establish “basic regulations to facilitate industry development.”
During an October Tesla earnings call, Musk advocated for a “federal approval process for autonomous vehicles,” arguing against a patchwork of state laws that he described as “incredibly challenging” to navigate. He expressed his intention to leverage his position as a government-efficiency czar, a role promised to him by Trump, to advocate for regulatory changes.
Following the election, Trump appointed Musk to co-lead a newly created Department of Government Efficiency to provide advice from an “outside government” perspective on reducing federal staff, spending, and regulations.
MORE DATA, MORE CRASHES
Tesla is a prominent automaker developing advanced driver-assistance features that can aid in lane changes, driving speed, and steering.
Tesla’s Autopilot and “Full Self-Driving” systems, though not fully autonomous, have faced intense scrutiny in legal proceedings and a DOJ criminal investigation examining whether Tesla overstated its vehicles’ self-driving capabilities, potentially misleading investors and consumers.
Tesla opposes the crash-notification requirement, believing that NHTSA presents the data in a manner that misleads consumers regarding the automaker’s safety record, according to sources familiar with Tesla executives’ perspectives.
In recent years, Tesla executives have discussed with Musk the necessity of advocating for the elimination of the crash-reporting requirement, as per one source. However, due to the Biden administration’s positive reception of the program, Tesla executives concluded that a change in administration would be required to eliminate the requirements, the source added.
Tesla perceives the rules as unjust because it asserts that it provides superior data reporting compared to other automakers, making it appear as though Tesla is disproportionately responsible for crashes involving advanced driver-assistance systems, as per one of the sources.
NHTSA warns against using the data to compare one automaker’s safety performance to another, as different companies collect crash information in varying ways.
Bryant Walker Smith, a University of South Carolina law professor specializing in autonomous driving, noted that Tesla collects real-time crash data that other companies do not, likely reporting a “significantly higher proportion of their incidents” than other automakers.
Tesla also probably experiences a higher frequency of crashes involving driver-assistance technologies due to having more vehicles on the road equipped with such systems, and drivers engaging the systems more frequently, Smith stated. Consequently, the vehicles may encounter situations beyond their capabilities more frequently, he added.
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