Document: Trump's transition team seeks to repeal a crash-reporting rule opposed by Tesla and other car makers and “liberalize” autonomous vehicle regulation
#DOGE #musk — www.reuters.com/business/aut... @lorifontanes : just like pregnancy health outcomes & gun violence, data on #selfdriving #car crashes shouldn't be suppressed & is essential to #PublicHealth & #PublicSafety — www.reuters.com/business/aut... @barbisblue : So how unreal is this?? Musk doesn't want it reported when one of his self driving cars has a crash. So he's the richest man in the world and wants all the rules bent in his favor. Will anybody wake up and just say “no”? We have to put up with the orange rump and this meathead too? Grrrrr...... Mark Chadbourn / @chadbourn : Musk gets his first payback from Trump. Mastodon: Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life@mas.to : There is already data that shows Teslas have twice the number of deaths per fatal crash rate than the average car. This counters the argument that all that self driving tech makes their cars safer. — Now it looks like we will soon have less visibility into crash rates from self driving cars going forward. … Ann Lipton / @annmlipton@esq.social : To be fair, Musk is absolutely fulfilling his fiduciary duties to shareholders — https://www.reuters.com/... Dave Rahardja / @drahardja@sfba.social : You'd think that if Teslas with FSD were actually “safer than humans” as Elon claimed, they'd WANT to report crashes to prove the point. — “Exclusive: Trump transition recommends scrapping car-crash reporting requirement opposed by Tesla” — #tesla #elon #fsd — https://www.reuters.com/... Randahl Fink / @randahl@mastodon.social : To everyone finding car safety important, I have some good news and some bad news: — 40 out of 45 fatal crashes reported to the NHTSA this year were caused by Teslas, but the good news is, this is now being addressed. — The bad news is, the Trump administration will solve this... by removing the [quote:] “excessive reporting” of car accidents. … AkaSci / @AkaSci@fosstodon.org : It's Friday the 13th. — Here is a preview of some of the nightmares that will visit us every day for the next 4 years, as the Hyenas take over the land. — Trump transition recommends scrapping car-crash reporting requirement opposed by Tesla. — Why fix bugs when you can simply hide them? … Threads: Dan O'Dowd / @realdanodowd : Elon Musk's regulatory capture of NHTSA means the only government crash data the public has on Tesla's defective self-driving software might be coming to an end. NHTSA will be utterly hamstrung without this data, which had led to 10 investigations and nine safety recalls. Matt Rodriguez / @mattballislife05 : Trump wants that or Elon wants that? X: Michael Guimarin / @michaelguimarin : Saw this coming a mile away. The data collection methodology for evaluating autonomous cars is flawed because autonomous cars failure model is different from human driven cars. Many in the industry already know how unsafe these cars are. They “cause” accidents, but not Julie Bush / @julie_bush : i have written extensively about the secret story behind Tesla and Elon's fraud. the US would consider this oligarchic arrangement outrageous in any other “developing country.” Americans are just accepting it thanks to decades of fluffing this psychopath https://www.reuters.com/... Avi Asher-Schapiro / @aaschapiro : Trump's transition team wants to eliminate a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration rule which now requires companies like Tesla to alert the government of crashes that occur when autonomous-driving tech is engaged within 30 seconds of impact. https://www.reuters.com/... Ken McLeod / @kenmcld : Oh look, they're doing the thing I expected them to do https://www.reuters.com/... If we tested Advanced Driver Assistance Systems we'd have less need for this crash reporting But the US is a literal decade behind @EuroNCAP in the best case following its roadmap [image] Andy M Morley / @anmosportpsych : Nothing to see here: No conflict from anyone working in DOGE Trump team wants to scrap car-crash reporting rule that Tesla opposes | Reuters https://www.reuters.com/... Eike B. / @tsla_q : ‚Removing the crash-disclosure provision would particularly benefit Tesla, which has reported most of the crashes - more than 1,500 - to federal safety regulators under the program.' Banana Republic. $TSLA https://www.reuters.com/... @pg : Trump transition recommends scrapping car-crash reporting requirement opposed by Tesla :: Tesla accounted for 40 out of 45 fatal crashes reported through Oct. 15... such data is crucial to evaluating the safety of automated-driving technologies | Reuters https://www.reuters.com/... Tomasz Janczuk / @tjanczuk : 2024 is the year oligarchy is coming out of the democracy closet @elonmusk @realDonaldTrump https://www.reuters.com/... Frank Luntz / @frankluntz : The Trump transition team wants to drop car-crash reporting requirements, a move that could cripple the government's ability to investigate and regulate the safety of vehicles with automated-driving systems. 🚗 https://www.reuters.com/... Grant / @grantbelden : IMO not necessarily the right move Enables local lawmakers to claim the tech isn't safe / ready for robotaxi Will be curious to see if Elon's actually able to speed run regulators on this front My bet is no https://www.reuters.com/... LinkedIn: Greg Reed : Is it just me, or is it really beginning to feel like Elon's $1/4B spend on Trump's election campaign was just a business investment? … Forums: r/teslainvestorsclub : Trump team wants to scrap car-crash reporting rule that Tesla opposes r/EnoughMuskSpam : Trump transition recommends scrapping the car-crash reporting requirement that's opposed by Tesla r/NewsOfTheStupid : Trump transition wants to scrap crash reporting requirement opposed by Tesla r/DemocraticSocialism : Trump transition team seeks to scrap car-crash reporting rule opposed by Elon Musk's Tesla r/musked : Trump transition team seeks to scrap car-crash reporting rule opposed by Elon Musk's Tesla
Context & Ripple Effects
The proposal arrives after NHTSA opened a Full Self-Driving investigation covering 2.4 million Tesla vehicles following reported low-visibility crashes. It also follows reports that Elon Musk could influence agencies regulating his companies through a proposed government-efficiency role outlined during the campaign.
The core issue is not only autonomous-vehicle approvals but the reporting stream regulators use to identify safety problems. Later coverage of planned NHTSA easing of autonomous-vehicle rules suggests this proposal fits a broader push to reduce those requirements.
First-order effects
- If adopted, removing the crash-reporting rule would reduce manufacturers' mandatory disclosures involving autonomous-driving technology, directly affecting NHTSA's visibility into reported incidents.
- Tesla and other automakers opposing the requirement would face a less burdensome reporting regime, while regulators would have fewer standardized reports to support investigations and oversight.
Second-order effects
- A thinner public reporting record could make it harder for safety advocates, researchers, and competitors to compare automated-driving systems using a common federal dataset.
- Relaxed approval and reporting rules could shift firms' compliance strategies toward faster deployment, while putting greater weight on NHTSA's other investigative tools when incidents emerge.
Third-order effects
- The episode points to a contest over whether autonomous-vehicle policy should prioritize premarket and post-crash transparency or reduce regulatory friction for deployment.
- If reporting obligations continue to be narrowed, federal safety oversight may become more dependent on episodic probes rather than a broad, standardized incident-reporting system.
The trend: Autonomous-vehicle policy is moving toward a sharper trade-off between accelerating deployment and preserving the safety data needed for public accountability.