(Bloomberg) — Members of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team told advisers they plan to make a federal framework for autonomous vehicles a priority for the Department of Transportation, people say close to the file.
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If new rules allow for a wider deployment of cars without human control, it will directly benefit Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc. and a Trump mega-donor who has become a powerful element in the president-elect’s inner circle. He’s betting that the electric vehicle maker’s future lies in autonomous driving technology and artificial intelligence.
Tesla shares rose more than 7% shortly after the market opened Monday, extending their 28% advance since Election Day. Shares of Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc., which could face competition from Musk’s long-planned robo-taxi network, each fell more than 6% in intraday trading.
Current federal rules pose significant obstacles to companies seeking to release vehicles in large quantities without steering wheels or pedals, which Tesla intends to do.
The Trump team is seeking to fill the department with leaders who will develop a framework for regulating autonomous vehicles, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The work is only just beginning and the political details still need to be clarified.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration currently allows manufacturers to deploy 2,500 autonomous vehicles per year under an granted exemption. The company also has a number of ongoing safety investigations into autonomous vehicles and driver assistance systems, including features Tesla markets like Autopilot and fully autonomous driving.
While the Department of Transportation can establish strict rules through NHTSA that would help pave the way for autonomous vehicles, mass adoption of self-driving cars will likely require broader legislation from Congress. A bipartisan legislative measure that is in the early stages of discussion would create federal rules regarding VAs, two of the people said.
“Companies want more clarity on vehicles without pedals or steering wheels,” said Grayson Brulte, founder of The Road to Autonomy, a data and analytics company focused on self-driving technology. “There might be a fight over this, but if a federal framework is implemented, it could pave the way for the self-reliance economy. »
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One of the candidates for Transportation secretary is Emil Michael, a former Uber executive who has spoken with Trump’s team and potential employees, according to people familiar with the discussions. Republican Reps. Sam Graves of Missouri and Garret Graves of Louisiana were also considered to lead the department, the sources said.
The transition team did not respond to requests for comment.
Waymo, Cruise
Tesla is trying to catch up with companies led by Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo which, unlike Musk’s automaker, already carry passengers in vehicles without anyone behind the wheel.
General Motors Co.’s Waymo and Cruise have so far only deployed self-driving cars that still have steering wheels and pedals, despite their ability to operate without a human in the driver’s seat. This is due to state and federal safety requirements, many of which were written long before the advent of automated driving systems.
While companies can request an exemption from these standards to deploy a limited number of vehicles without certain controls, Cruise’s request was not acted upon for more than two years. In July, GM announced it was abandoning its dedicated autonomous vehicle project called Origin.
Autonomous vehicles have also rolled out slowly due to safety concerns. Cruise took his cars off the road for nearly a year after one of his vehicles struck and dragged a pedestrian in San Francisco. NHTSA also launched investigations into defects in Waymo’s Zoox unit and Amazon.com Inc., as well as Tesla’s driver assistance systems. Uber sold its self-driving car division in 2020, years after one of its test vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona.
Tesla’s Cybercab
Musk announced plans last month to produce large numbers of driverless Tesla robo-taxis starting in 2026. The company last month unveiled Cybercab and Robovan models that were just prototypes.
Shortly after the event, Musk called for a federal approval process for autonomous vehicles. During Tesla’s quarterly earnings conference call, the CEO said he would leverage a potential role in the Trump administration to lobby for it.
Trump has since named Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to head a new Department of Government Effectiveness tasked with “dismantling government bureaucracy” and cutting spending and regulations deemed too burdensome.
Previous efforts to develop federal legislation to regulate autonomous vehicles have failed.
NHTSA currently allows manufacturers to deploy 2,500 autonomous vehicles per year under an granted exemption, but legislative efforts to increase that number to 100,000 have repeatedly failed.
A bill to do so passed the House several years ago during Trump’s first term, but the measure stalled in the Senate. An attempt during the first year of the Biden administration to merge the bill with other laws failed when some manufacturers tried to include language that would prevent consumers from suing or filing class-action lawsuits.
–With help from Keith Laing, Hadriana Lowenkron, Craig Trudell, Emily Chang and Ted Mann.
(Updates with additional context on the companies affected, including Waymo and Cruise.)
