Last week, the US Department of Transportation announced a major change to the Biden-era rule that requires automakers and tech companies to report crashes that involve fully or partially autonomous vehicles. Under the revised rules, companies will no longer have to report certain crashes, such as those involving a vehicle equipped with a Level 2 advanced driver assist system (ADAS) that resulted in a tow-away, but no injuries, fatalities, or airbag deployments. The change was meant to, in Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s words, “slash red tape and move us closer to a single national standard that spurs innovation and prioritizes safety.”
One company that stands to benefit from the rule change is Tesla. Under the previous regime, Elon Musk’s company comprised the bulk of crashes reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) involving vehicles with Level 2 automated systems. But under the revised rule, Tesla’s load will be significantly lighter.
Tesla’s load will be significantly lighter
Under the previous rule, if a vehicle with a Level 2 driver assist system or above had a crash that resulted in the vehicle needing to be towed away, but didn’t involve a fatality, injury, any vulnerable road user like a pedestrian or cyclist, or an airbag deployment, it still needed to be reported to NHTSA. Now, under the revised rule, those specific tow-away crashes don’t need to be reported.
As the world’s foremost proponent of Level 2 automated systems, Tesla represents the majority of reported ADAS crashes. According to NHTSA, a total of 2,359 crashes involving vehicles equipped with ADAS were reported since the rule was first implemented in July 2021. Tesla reported 2,030 of those crashes, or approximately 86 percent, according to Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.
To determine the number of fewer crashes that Tesla will need to report, the group searched the database for tow-away crashes, while filtering out non-Tesla vehicles and any crash involving an injury, fatality, vulnerable road user, and airbag deployment. Of Tesla’s 2,030 crashes, 240 met those criteria, which represents 12 percent of the company’s total reported crashes.
The idea behind the standing general order (SGO) was to create more transparency around the deployment of a new technology that purports to improve safety but has also been tied to a number of deadly incidents. Regulators argued that more data was needed to determine whether these new systems were making roads safer or simply making driving more convenient.
Tesla, in particular, came under scrutiny. The company’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features, which are considered Level 2 systems that require drivers to pay attention, are both covered under the rule. NHTSA has launched several investigations into Tesla’s driver-assist technology, most of which centered on crashes reported under the SGO.
Tesla reportedly despised the crash-notification requirement, believing that NHTSA presents the data in ways that mislead consumers about the automaker’s safety, two sources familiar with Tesla executives’ thinking told Reuters last December. Tesla CEO Elon Musk was one of Trump’s most vocal defenders during the campaign, spending at least $277 million of his own money to back his candidacy. And he now runs the Department of Government Efficiency with the goal of cutting government spending, eliminating humanitarian aid, and firing federal workers.
During his confirmation hear, Secretary Duffy said he would allow safety investigations into Tesla’s advanced driving technology to proceed unimpeded. But a few months into the administration, Musk’s DOGE fired about 30 employees of NHTSA, many of them part of a department that assesses the risks of self-driving cars.
