Sean Duffy, Donald Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Department of Transportation, will support the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) probes into Tesla’s advanced driver-assist technology.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s overt influence within the Trump administration might pose a problem for Duffy and raised concerns within the Senate Commerce Committee. However, Duffy publicly committed to the committee during his confirmation hearing on Wednesday that he would remain objective despite Musk’s close ties to President-elect Donald Trump.
Both public and regulatory scrutiny has been mounting against Tesla due to many issues ranging from having the most recalls of any automaker in 2024, multiple investigations, and several high-profile incidents. Musk’s recent political involvement and unsubstantiated claims that Tesla’s FSD will soon be genuinely unsupervised and autonomous by Q2 2025 only fuel the fire.
It’s rumored that President-elect Donald Trump has been considering potential policy changes that will benefit Musk such as repealing a crash reporting rule for partial and fully autonomous vehicles.
During the hearing, Duffy acknowledged the ineffectiveness of the “patchwork of laws” that govern the rollout of autonomous vehicles (AVs), which range from state to state. He noted that it is not only a safety concern but also a national security issue. He supports the idea that there is a need for better national legislation and regulations to support the imminent rollout of AVs.
Although Congress has been going back and forth for almost a decade regarding AV technology, they’ve failed to pass any federal regulatory framework. In response, NHTSA released a new voluntary framework for AVs to make the rollout of autonomous vehicles more manageable and efficient.
