What did Donald Trump do today?
He floated the idea of letting his patron Elon Musk hide the number of crashes his "self-driving" cars get into.Today, Trump's transition team previewed a plan to kill regulations that requires car makers to report accidents and deaths related to automated driving systems. The majority of crashes that must be disclosed under this rule are from Tesla vehicles: 40 out of 45 fatal crashes of so-called "self-driving" cars have involved Teslas.
Tesla's CEO and principle owner Elon Musk has actively involved himself in the same transition team that leaked the plans. Musk's new role in government, in which he seems to be allowed to pick for himself what powers to exert, is apparently a concession for the massive financial and media help that he gave the Trump campaign.
Musk strongly opposes having to disclose Tesla's safety record to the public. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently opened up an investigation into 2.4 million of Tesla's so-called Full Self-Driving vehicles currently on the road. Tesla has been stonewalling the regulator by refusing to release data it is legally required to provide. Teslas have also been subject to multiple, overlapping recalls.
Self-driving cars may be an attainable goal in the near future, but experts have criticized Musk for releasing buggy and incomplete versions of it for use by the general public, while advertising it as a fully functional "autopilot," and then blaming drivers who trusted it to perform like one.
The trial balloon of exempting Tesla from having to inform the public about the "self-driving" technology it already uses on public roads comes a few days after Trump promised to automatically fast-track exemptions from rules for any sufficiently large or wealthy companies.
Why does this matter?
- Mega-billionaires shouldn't be allowed to exempt themselves from laws they don't feel like following just because the president owes them.
- The American people have a right to know if cars on public roads are safe or not.