Trump Could Eliminate Self-Reporting of Self-Driving Car CrashesTrump Could Eliminate Self-Reporting of Self-Driving Car Crashes

President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team wants to potentially eliminate a regulatory requirement for automakers to report crashes of cars outfitted with automated driving systems.

The Standing General Order was established by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in 2021 and has been widely used over the past few years to investigate around 2,700 accidents.

However, according to Reuters – which broke the news after seeing a document of planned recommendations for the new administration – the Trump team tasked with producing a 100-day strategy for automotive policy is advocating scrapping the rule, in the belief that it permits “excessive” data collection.

Arguably the chief beneficiary of such a decision would be Tesla, which has had to report around 1,500 incidents to the program – a result of having the greatest number of vehicles on U.S. roads fitted with the relevant tech. According to Reuters, 40 of the 45 fatal crashes reported through Oct. 15 involved Teslas.

The news will do little to quell concern being expressed in some quarters about the proximity of so-called First Buddy, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, to the incoming president, which had already led to suggestions that Trump will ease the rules on autonomous vehicles. 

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However, Reuters does make clear that it was unable to determine what role – if any – Musk had played in compiling the recommendations.

The NHTSA is understood to be keen for the status quo to be retained, with the reports on the 2,700 incidents having led to 10 investigations into six companies, as well as nine safety recalls involving four companies. 

Among these was a huge recall of more than 2 million Teslas in December 2023 over concerns that the firm’s Autosteer driver-assistance feature did not do enough to prevent driver misuse.

Publicly, Tesla has never queried the self-reporting requirement, although it is generally accepted the automaker does not support it. The company believes it reports more data and better data, than other car manufacturers, making it look like its tech is responsible for a disproportionate number of issues with automated driving systems.

However, the EV maker has had several run-ins with the NHTSA, including as recently as November when the agency criticized the automaker for its social media activity, saying: “Tesla’s X (Twitter) account has re-posted or endorsed postings that exhibit disengaged driver behavior.” 

And Musk himself has let his feelings be known on the NHTSA in the past, tweeting in 2022: “The fun police made us do it (sigh)” when asked about the agency’s order to recall and modify Tesla’s “Boombox” external noise function.

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It is not clear at this stage whether the Trump administration will act upon the recommendation to end the requirement.