President Donald Trump’s nominee to move the nation’s auto security regulator will argue on Wednesday that the company should actively oversee self-driving car expertise, a possible signal of a more durable method than some critics anticipated.
Jonathan Morrison, chief counsel of the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration within the first Trump administration, will testify to the U.S. Senate that autonomous automobiles provide potential advantages but additionally distinctive dangers.
“NHTSA can’t sit again and anticipate issues to come up with such growing applied sciences, however should show robust management,” Morrison stated in written testimony seen by Reuters.
The feedback steered NHTSA will proceed to carefully scrutinize self-driving automobiles. Some critics of the expertise had expressed alarm over NHTSA workers cuts this yr underneath a cost-cutting marketing campaign led by Elon Musk, who was an in depth adviser to Trump and is CEO of self-driving automaker Tesla.
The Musk-Trump alliance prompted some critics to take a position that NHTSA would go simple on self-driving car builders. However the relationship started to unravel in late Might over Trump’s spending plans, and the 2 are actually locked in a feud.
NHTSA stated final month it was in search of data from Tesla about social media movies of robotaxis and self-driving automobiles Tesla was testing in Austin, Texas. The movies have been alleged to point out one of many automobiles utilizing the incorrect lane and one other rushing.
Since October, NHTSA has been investigating 2.4 million Tesla automobiles with full self-driving expertise after 4 reported collisions, together with a 2023 deadly crash.
“The technical and coverage challenges surrounding these new applied sciences should be addressed,” Morrison’s testimony stated. “Failure to take action will lead to merchandise that the general public is not going to settle for and the company is not going to tolerate.”
Different firms within the self-driving sector additionally have been topics of NHTSA investigations together with Alphabet’s Waymo, which final yr confronted studies its robotaxis might have damaged visitors legal guidelines. Waymo in Might recalled 1,200 self-driving automobiles, and the probe stays open.
Regulatory scrutiny elevated after 2023 when a pedestrian was severely injured by a GM Cruise self-driving automobile.
The primary recorded demise of a pedestrian associated to self-driving expertise was in 2018 in Tempe, Arizona.
