Trump Team Wants to Make It Easier to Get Self-Driving Cars on the Road

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President-elect Donald Trump's transition team is reportedly working on a new federal framework for self-driving cars.

According to Bloomberg, the incoming Trump administration wants to make it easier for car companies to put autonomous vehicles on the road. The Transportation Department can create rules for the technology, but having Congress tackle the issue would put it on more solid ground. As a result, a "bipartisan legislative measure" is under discussion, Bloomberg reports.

The Trump team has not commented on its plans. But on the campaign trail, Trump said self-driving cars are a "little concerning to me," and pledged to "stop [autonomous cars] from operating on American roads." His comments were a little disjointed, however, and may have been referencing self-driving cars from China rather than US-made autonomous vehicles.

Has Elon Musk, now a key advisor to the president-elect, eased Trump's concerns? Musk has bet Tesla's future on the company's ability to "solve self-driving." In October, he debuted two robotaxi prototypes and reiterated during a recent earnings call that "the future is autonomous."

"It should be blindingly obvious" that that's the direction Tesla is taking, Musk added.

However, Tesla has not yet gained legal clearance to operate its robotaxis in the US, falling behind Waymo and others that are testing in several states. At the Cybercab launch, Musk suggested Tesla could get clearance to operate driverless systems in California and Texas in 2025 and start production in 2026 or 2027.

Individual states have their own testing and safety standards for self-driving cars, which is why we often hear of self-driving car software operating in specific cities and states (usually California, Nevada, and Texas). If testing goes well, they move to the next state, and so on.

On the federal level, the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) sets the rules for testing and safety. In 2021, it issued a Standing General Order that requires companies with Level 2 self-driving systems and above to report crashes to the agency. It is currently investigating four crashes involving self-driving Teslas and whether system design was a factor.

"Vehicle safety promises to be one of automation's biggest benefits," the NHTSA says. "While these systems are not available to consumers today, the advantages of this developing technology could be far-reaching."

Some NHTSA rules restrict widespread adoption. Bloomberg points to one that could be a target for Trump: Manufacturers are currently allowed to deploy 2,500 self-driving vehicles per year under a granted exemption, and efforts to increase it to 100,000 have failed.

A bill to do so passed in the House during Trump's first term but stalled in the Senate. During the first year of the Biden administration, another attempt failed when some manufacturers required language to prevent consumers from suing or forming class-action cases.

PCMag reached out to the NHTSA and Waymo for comment.