Skip to content

Trump may likely abolish a federal regulation that exposed the substantial number of Tesla vehicle collisions.

Revoking the rule would directly advantage Trump's latest associate, Elon Musk.

Trump may likely abolish a federal regulation that exposed the substantial number of Tesla vehicle collisions.

Tesla, Elon Musk's automobile company, isn't known for its stellar safety record on the road. Recent studies of federal data have even put Tesla at the top in fatal collisions. This revelation is thanks to a regulatory rule introduced by the Biden administration some years back, aimed at enhancing transparency around the implementation of autonomous technologies on US highways. With Trump returning to the White House, it appears possible that he might abolish this rule, which would be a significant advantage for his political partner, Musk.

Friday's Reuters report suggested that Trump's transition team is contemplating eliminating the vehicle collision reporting requirement. Reuters bases their information on a document revealing that the proposal to eliminate the crash reporting regulation originated from a team responsible for devising a 100-day policy for the automotive sector. This group deemed the regulation an excess of data collection. The aforementioned fatal collision data was also sourced from a Reuters analysis of federal records. Eliminating the reporting requirement has been a long-standing ambition for Tesla. Reuters reports:

For years, Tesla leaders have discussed with Musk the significance of advocating for scrapping the crash-reporting requirement. However, the enthusiasm of Biden officials for the program led Tesla executives to conclude that they would require a change of administration to remove the stipulations, according to one source.

Tesla considers the rules unfair because it believes it reports more reliable data compared to other automakers. As a result, Tesla appears to be responsible for a disproportionately high number of crashes connected to advanced driver-assistance systems, one of the sources stated.

Reuters also cites Bryant Walker Smith, a University of South Carolina law professor, who suggests that Tesla likely reports a "far larger proportion" of their incidents compared to other carmakers. Nevertheless, skeptics suggest that Tesla's semi-autonomous driving function, Full Self-Driving, might be linked to the high crash statistics plaguing the brand. The system is currently being scrutinized by the federal government.

Preceding reports have pointed out that Tesla often features prominently in fatal incidents. Similar to before, a recent analysis of NHTSA data concluded that Tesla has the highest incidence rate in fatal collisions among major brands. A 2022 report published by the NHTSA itself claimed that in the previous year, Teslas accounted for approximately 70% of car crashes involving driver-assist systems. This year, the agency published another report claiming that Tesla's Autopilot function had a "critical safety gap" that could be linked to hundreds of crashes. A previous analysis of federal data published by the Washington Post showed that Tesla's Autopilot function had been associated with 17 fatalities and as many as 736 crashes since 2019.

The abolition of the vehicle collision reporting requirement could significantly benefit Tesla, given its long-standing ambition to scrap this regulation due to perceived unfairness in reporting. Despite Tesla reporting more reliable data, it has consistently been associated with a high incidence rate of fatal collisions and crashes connected to advanced driver-assistance systems, as highlighted in numerous reports and analyses.

Read also:

    Comments

    Latest