It’s not often that you see industries asking to be regulated, but the prospect of a federal regulatory framework for autonomous vehicles may be welcome news to the AV sector.
The incoming Trump administration is laying the groundwork to implement federal regulations for AVs, Bloomberg recently reported. The details are still taking shape, but the Department of Transportation would reportedly lead the process. The move would likely speed the deployment of driverless vehicles on US roadways––and benefit Tesla, whose CEO, Elon Musk, has been playing an influential role in Trump’s transition back to the White House.
Win for Tesla: “This would be a huge step forward in easing US rules for self-driving cars and be a significant tailwind for Tesla’s autonomous and AI vision heading into 2025,” Wedbush Securities analysts wrote in a note. They said they expect the Trump White House to help accelerate Tesla’s AI and AV plans, thanks to Musk’s “big bet” on Trump: “Tesla and Musk are set to reap the benefits from a new friendlier regulatory era in the Beltway ahead.”
Musk has expressed opposition to the current state-by-state regulatory process for AVs in the US. “There should be a federal approval process for autonomous vehicles,” Musk said during Tesla’s Q3 earnings call.
Tesla is preparing to debut a robotaxi product it calls the “Cybercab.” Musk has bet big that Tesla’s future is in AI and robotics, not just in EVs, and in October he laid out a vision for deploying robotaxis in which individual Tesla owners would rent out their vehicles to users. The prototype Tesla showed didn’t have a steering wheel or pedals. Musk said Tesla plans to roll out the Cybercab in 2026, though his timelines often don’t pan out.
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Patchwork: There are no overarching federal regulations for AVs, although the federal government plays a role in overseeing the sector. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, for example, investigates safety issues with AVs.
One of the federal government’s primary mechanisms for oversight of AVs is through the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, which are minimum standards that all vehicles must meet. That’s where issues like removing the steering wheel come into play; such a move requires an exemption.
Statutes on AVs largely have been taken up on a state-by-state basis. The Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association has worked to get model legislation introduced in states across the country, and also has released its own recommendations for a federal policy framework to support the deployment of AVs. The industry group, whose members include many major AV players, argues that a federal framework is necessary “to realize the benefits of AVs.”
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, an industry trade group representing most major automakers in the US, also has advocated for federal AV regulations.
“Other countries, including China, are implementing regulatory frameworks to support the development and deployment of AVs, but the US still lacks such a framework,” John Bozzella, the group’s CEO, reportedly wrote in a letter to the Trump transition team.
“A unified federal framework for autonomous vehicles would speed the development and adoption of driverless technologies by focusing the industry on a defined set of technical and regulatory hurdles,” Brad Rosen, COO of Nodar—which develops 3D vision systems for AVs—said in a statement to Tech Brew.
However, he added that the “details and implementation of this new program will matter greatly” and must strike a balance between enabling innovation and reducing safety risks.