Sean Duffy, Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Transportation, said he would allow safety investigations into Tesla’s advanced driving technology to proceed, possibly setting himself up for a clash with a top supporter of the president-elect.
Duffy, a former Republican congressman, lobbyist, and Fox News personality, made the comments during his confirmation hearing Wednesday in front of the Senate Commerce Committee. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) asked whether he could maintain objectivity in investigating Tesla, which is headed by Trump donor and supporter Elon Musk.
“Yes, I commit to this committee and to you that I will let NHTSA do their investigation,” he said. “I think I also mentioned to you that a lot of the players in these spaces, I haven’t met any of them.”
Duffy’s comments follow months of reporting about Musk’s unprecedented influence over Trump’s transition, in which the Tesla CEO has sat in on meetings with potential nominees, vetted new hires, and volunteered to co-lead a committee to oversee massive spending cuts. Trump is also reportedly weighing policy decisions that would favor Musk’s business, such as eliminating a crash reporting rule for partial and fully autonomous vehicles.
During the Biden administration, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched several investigations into the safety of Tesla’s automated driving technology. One the largest probes resulted in a December 2023 recall of more than 2 million Tesla vehicles to install better safeguards for the company’s Autopilot driver assist feature. NHTSA launched another investigation into the adequacy of the recall.
Duffy didn’t say anything more about stepping into a role that could put him at odds with Musk. But he did comment on the needs for national legislation to better regulate the safe rollout of autonomous vehicles. He said:
This is not just a wonderful technology that has a potential of making our roads safer, but this is a national security issue. We can’t fall behind China or other countries as it comes to AV technology. Right now, we have a patchwork of laws from state to state. I believe there has to be a federal law by which all of these innovators can abide by it, no matter if they’re in Texas or in California or somewhere else. And again, I’ll always make sure that safety is key. But after safety, we want to give a wide runway for these companies and innovators to create products that are going to bring us this new technology that, again, can revolutionize the way we get items, how we travel, whether you’re taking an Uber or … It can be remarkable and exciting.
As transportation secretary, Duffy has a bully pulpit to advocate for a national law for self-driving cars. And its been reported that Trump is in favor of passing such a bill once taking office.
But Congress has taken up several proposals over the past decade, with little to show for it. And its unclear whether major differences will be settled by the time the next opportunity arises.
The federal government has largely taken a back seat to in regulating autonomous vehicles, leaving states to develop their own rulebooks for safe deployment — which Duffy said was not ideal. Legislation that would dramatically increase the number of AVs on the road has been stalled in Congress for over seven years, with lawmakers at odds over a range of issues, including safety, liability, and the right number of exemptions from federal motor vehicle safety standards.
Meanwhile, NHTSA has recently released new voluntary framework for autonomous vehicles that aims to ease the rollout of fully driverless cars.