Elon Musk, the headline-grabbing owner of SpaceX and Tesla, is at the heart of the impending administration of President-elect Donald Trump. And though Musk doesn’t have a mandate to govern, he does have Trump’s ear and has promised to slash government spending to the bone and reduce regulations that are burdensome on burgeoning industries. Some critics of this mashup have fretted that Musk could use this rarefied position not only to shrink government, but to advantage his companies — or to push his competitors into a corner.
Here are a few of the transportation-related policies experts say the incoming Musk-friendly Trump administration could target.
Driverless car companies have for some time lobbied to get out from under what they call onerous crash reporting requirements mandated by NHTSA — and with Trump in charge, they might get their wish.
In the past, autonomous vehicle companies such as Waymo, GM, Uber and Lyft have argued that they are eager to share data — but only certain kinds of data. Specifically the industry has chafed against a requirement that they provide NHTSA with a monthly report listing every crash where the driverless function was engaged within 30 seconds of the crash.
