Elon Musk spent over $250 million to help reelect Donald Trump and now has a new job overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency. The Trump transition team recommends dropping a car-crash reporting requirement for federal safety regulators, citing data collection as “excessive.” Tesla has long pushed for this change, having reported 40 out of 45 fatal crashes in the last year.
Critics argue that the crash-reporting requirements are crucial to evaluating the safety of emerging automated-driving technologies. Without this data, regulatory agencies like the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) cannot easily detect crash patterns that highlight safety problems.
The NHTSA has analyzed over 2,700 crashes since establishing the rule in 2021 and has influenced 10 investigations into six companies, as well as nine safety recalls. Deregulating this requirement would particularly benefit Tesla, which has reported most of the crashes to federal regulators under the program.
President-elect Donald Trump has responded to criticism about giving Musk control over agencies that regulate his companies, stating he believes Musk prioritizes the country over his company. The president-elect’s stance on the issue is seen as a potential conflict of interest.
Source: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/elon-musk-doesnt-want-tesla-to-have-to-do-car-crash-reporting-and-what-do-you-know-the-trump-transition-agrees