Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is firing nearly half of a small government team that regulates autonomous vehicles, the Washington Post reported.
The firings are part of a broader 10% reduction at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as a result of firings of probationary workers and buyout offers, the Post reported, citing anonymous sources.
The firings come ahead of Tesla’s planned robotaxi launch in Austin later this year.
The NHTSA has investigated Tesla several times due to accidents that happened while Autopilot, Tesla’s advanced driver assistance software, was engaged. Some of the agency’s probes into Tesla are still open. In October, the NHTSA opened a new investigation into Tesla’s so-called “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” software after four crashes in low visibility situations were reported, one of which resulted in the death of a pedestrian.
Tesla’s FSD is said to be an advanced driver assistance system that can do automated driving in urban and highway environments. Musk’s goal is to improve the camera-based software to the point of full autonomy by this summer, a goal that he has said is right around the corner for years.
Aside from firing people who worked with crash test dummies or helped states get safety grant funding, DOGE eliminated three of about seven employees in a new office dedicated to overseeing autonomous vehicles, reports The Post.
The Post cited its sources as saying they believe these cuts will affect the federal government’s ability to understand the safety case behind Tesla’s vehicles.
Other companies will also be affected by NHTSA’s approach to regulation, including Alphabet’s Waymo and Amazon’s Zoox. Both companies are facing their own investigations for safety incidents related to their autonomous driving software.
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