According to a report from the Washington Post, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is reducing its workforce by nearly 50% within a small government team responsible for regulating autonomous vehicles. This move is part of a broader 10% reduction at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which includes the dismissal of probationary workers and the offer of buyouts, as reported by anonymous sources.
The timing of these staff reductions coincides with Tesla’s planned launch of a robotaxi service in Austin later this year. The NHTSA has previously investigated Tesla on multiple occasions due to incidents occurring while Tesla’s advanced driver assistance software, Autopilot, was active. Several probes into Tesla remain ongoing. In October, the NHTSA initiated a new investigation into Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” software following reports of four crashes in low visibility conditions, one of which resulted in a pedestrian fatality.
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system is designed as an advanced driver assistance platform capable of automated driving in both urban and highway settings. Elon Musk has expressed his ambition to enhance the camera-based software to achieve full autonomy by the summer, a target he has suggested is imminent for several years.
In addition to the firing of personnel involved with crash test dummies and those assisting states with safety grant funding, three out of approximately seven employees in a newly established office dedicated to overseeing autonomous vehicles were also let go, as reported by The Post.
Sources cited in the report expressed concerns that these reductions could hinder the federal government’s ability to thoroughly assess the safety cases presented by Tesla’s vehicles. Other companies like Alphabet’s Waymo and Amazon’s Zoox may also be impacted by NHTSA’s regulatory approaches, as both companies are currently under investigation for safety incidents linked to their autonomous driving software.
