The Trump transition team has recommended dropping a car-crash reporting requirement opposed by Elon Musk’s Tesla, which could cripple the government’s ability to investigate and regulate the safety of vehicles with automated-driving systems. The proposal, which was seen by Reuters, would abandon a rule that requires carmakers to report crashes involving advanced driver-assistance or autonomous-driving technologies.
Tesla has reported most of the crashes, over 1,500, to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) under the program. The company has been targeted in NHTSA investigations, including three related to the data. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group representing most major automakers except Tesla, has also criticized the requirement as burdensome.
The move would particularly benefit Tesla, which has been targeted in NHTSA investigations. A Reuters analysis of NHTSA crash data shows that Tesla accounted for 40 out of 45 fatal crashes reported to the agency through October 15. The data includes a 2023 fatal accident in Virginia, where a driver using Tesla’s “Autopilot” feature slammed into a tractor-trailer, and a California wreck the same year where an Autopiloted Tesla hit a firetruck, killing the driver and injuring four firefighters.
NHTSA said that the data is crucial to evaluating the safety of emerging automated-driving technologies. However, two former NHTSA employees said that without the crash-reporting requirements, the agency cannot easily detect crash patterns that highlight safety problems.
The recommendation to kill the crash-reporting rule came from a transition team tasked with producing a 100-day strategy for automotive policy. The team called the measure a mandate for “excessive” data collection. While the Trump transition team, Musk, and Tesla did not respond to requests for comment, a change in the administration’s stance on the reporting requirement could have significant implications for the industry.