They were the same that should regulate Tesla’s cars

Although Critical voices with methods Elon Musk at the head of Doge has already put an expiration date to his political adventure, the Millionaire has found time to fire officials of the National Administration of Traffic Security on the roads. These are the same officials who must ensure that Tesla complies with the regulations for deploy your self -employed cars, As reported he Financial Times.

Doge’s long shadow. In February 2025, Doge ordered mass layoffs in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). These cuts affected 4% of the 800 officials of this agency, including specialized engineers of the vehicle automation security office.

Among the layoffs, there were three of the seven experts dedicated exclusively to creating the regulation that the Cyberercab and Tesla’s cars equipped with an autonomous driving system.

A stone in the shoe for Tesla. The NHTSSA office currently maintains eight open investigations against Tesla, many related to its Full Self-Driving (FSD) system. According toThe published by The Verge, These investigations often flow into Calls to review their cars or updates of your software for Correct errors.

One of the dismissed workers assured the Financial Times that the layoffs “would weaken the ability of the NHTSSA to understand autonomous driving technologies. This office should be at the forefront in the management of autonomous vehicles and in the definition of future regulations.” “It would be ironic for Doge to stop the display of Tesla,” said another former employee of the traffic security administration.

Musk plays a lot with the autonomous car. Tesla has very ambitious plans to launch a fleet of Robotaxis in Austin during the summer and start the production of the Cyberercab model for next year. These vehicles will not have a steering wheel or pedals and require Specific regulatory approvals like him AV Step programmanaged by the NHTSA. If the agency does not have the necessary resources, That regulation might not have a list on time.

“Letting Dog dismiss those of the Division of Autonomous Vehicles is crazy. We should be pressing to incorporate more personnel into the NHTSA. They should be developing a national framework for autonomous vehicles. Otherwise, Tesla has no possibility of expanding its FSD or Robotaxis technology,” a Tesla manager told the North American.

Tesla’s future is autonomous. The concept of Robotaxi is key to the strategic future of Tesla. Elon Musk has opted for this model as an economic and sustainable solution for urban transport. According to their statements, robotaxis could drastically reduce operational costs by eliminating the need for human conductors.

This approach seeks to position Tesla as Leader in front of competitors such as Waymo (Alphabet) and Zoox (Amazon), which also develop similar technologies and already have fleets working autonomously By cities like San Francisco.

Suspicions of conflict of interest. It is not the first time that the shadow of the conflicts of interest de Escane about Elon Musk and his role in the cuts of government agencies that regulate the activity of their companies. The accusations began when Doge cut the resources of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Federal Communications FCC Commission, agencies responsible for regulating the operations of Spacex and Starlink.

The same suspicions fell to the millionaire when Doge announced the dismissal of officials of the US Labor Inspection, just when the death of an operator was investigated at the Tesla plant. OK With what is published by The GuardianDemocratic senators have already presented a bill on a possible conflict of interest of Elon Musk at the head of Doge.

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Image | Flickr (Gage Skidmore), Tesla