In a surprise move, President Trump’s transportation department has decided to keep the Biden-era rule requiring automakers and tech companies to report crashes that involve fully or partially autonomous vehicles. But they’re making a few changes that are likely to have a big impact on one company.
In 2021, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a standing general order (SGO) requiring automakers and tech companies to report crashes involving fully autonomous vehicles as well as Level 2 driver-assist systems found in millions of vehicles on the road today. Under the SGO, companies are required to document collisions when an automated driving system was in use within 30 seconds of impact and report those incidents to the government.
Last year, Reuters reported that Trump’s transition team was considering axing the crash-reporting rule, specifically as a favor to Tesla. The company’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features, which are considered Level 2 driver assist systems that require drivers to pay attention, are both covered under the rule. And since it was implemented, Tesla has reported over 1,500 crashes to the federal government, Reuters says. An analysis of the crash data shows Tesla accounted for 40 out of 45 fatal crashes reported under the SGO.
The administration is keeping the rule, but not without a few key changes. USDOT announced a revised Automated Vehicle Framework on Thursday that keeps “maintains” the SGO, but with streamlined reporting that removes “unnecessary and duplicative requirements.” According to USDOT Secretary Sean Duffy, the new framework aims to “slash red tape and move us closer to a single national standard that spurs innovation and prioritizes safety.”
Under the previous SGO, if a vehicle with a Level 2 driver assist system or above had a crash that didn’t involve a fatality or a vulnerable road user (think pedestrian or cyclist), it had to be reported within 5 days if the vehicle had to be towed away or had an airbag deployment, said Sam Abuelsamid, VP for market research at Telemetry and an expert in autonomous vehicle technology.
The administration is keeping the rule, but not without a few key changes.
Now, under the revised rule, a crash only has to be reported if the vehicle has a Level 4 automated driving system, like Waymo. Vehicle crashes involving Level 2 systems that don’t involve a fatality or vulnerable road user are now exempted from reporting. And who benefits the most from this change?
“This has a huge impact on one particular company, Tesla, because Autopilot and [Full Self-Driving] are only L2 systems, not automated driving systems,” Abuelsamid explains. “Tesla has long complained about the fact that the vast majority of SGO reports are from their vehicles and this will eliminate all of the reports that don’t include a fatality or hitting a vulnerable road user.”
In its report from December, Reuters cited several sources close to Tesla saying the company “despises” the standing general order, with CEO Elon Musk concluding that it would take a change in administration in order to get rid of it. 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 runs the Department of Government Efficiency with the goal of cutting government spending, eliminating humanitarian aid, and terrorizing federal workers.
The end result is likely to be a lot less bad press for Tesla (which certainly has its fair share these) surrounding crashes involving its vehicles, and also less transparency for the public into which companies’ vehicles are more dependable, and which are not.
The department also expanded the Automated Vehicle Exemption Program (AVEP), previously open only to imported vehicles, to now include domestically produced cars. Abuelsamid speculates that this program was mostly used to import low speed autonomous shuttle vehicles like those manufactured by French company Navya, which has been used in several pilot programs across the country.
Unsurprisingly, USDOT officials are framing the changes as enabling AV operators to operate more nimbly without as many government requirements slowing down the process.
“By streamlining the SGO for Crash Reporting and expanding an existing exemption program to domestic vehicles, we are enabling AV manufacturers to develop faster and spend less time on unnecessary process, while still advancing safety,” said NHTSA Chief Counsel Peter Simshauser in a statement. “These are the first steps toward making America a more welcoming environment for the next generation of automotive technology.”