Doing so would radically alter the playing field for the burgeoning automated vehicle industry, decreasing transparency and making it more difficult for federal regulators to spark inquiries into dangerous practices. And Tesla would be the new policy’s biggest benefactor.
The electric vehicle company, which Musk heads, has reported the majority of automated vehicle crashes, more than 1,500, to federal safety regulators. And a Reuters analysis of data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, found that Tesla’s crash data accounted for 40 out of 45 of the fatal crashes reported through October 15.
Critics and law enforcement groups, including the Justice Department, have torched the company’s “autopilot” and “full self-driving” claims, arguing that the branding has misled investors and consumers into believing that the cars are fully autonomous when they still require an active driver behind the wheel.
