Tesla’s robotaxis are operating in a regulatory vacuum

This week, Tesla launched its long-promised robotaxi service in Austin, and almost immediately its vehicles were caught fucking up.

In a YouTube video, a Tesla robotaxi briefly drives on the wrong side of the road. Another video shared by Ed Niedermeyer, the author of a book about Tesla’s origins, shows a robotaxi braking hard in the middle of the road in response to stationary police vehicles that were not in its immediate driving path. And a third captures a robotaxi dropping off its passengers in the middle of a busy intersection.

Typically, when a driverless vehicle makes a mistake or is involved in a crash, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launches an investigation. And that’s just what happened yesterday, when the agency released a statement to Bloomberg that said it was reviewing the incident and would “take any necessary actions to protect road safety.”

That may leave you with the impression that Tesla has been put on notice. One more mistake, one more close call, and NHTSA will bring the smackdown. Except that’s not really what will happen.

Under Donald Trump’s administration, the federal government’s ability to effectively regulate autonomous vehicle operators has been drastically diminished. The Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk himself, has laid off tens of thousands of federal workers, including dozens of safety regulators at NHTSA — the very agency charged with overseeing the safe rollout of robotaxis. Consumer protections have been further kneecapped over the years thanks to the right-leaning courts, including the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Chevron deference.

In a sense, Tesla is operating in a regulatory vacuum. And that is very good for Elon Musk and his plan to put “a million” robotaxis on the road by the end of 2026.

This is not unique to the current Trump administration. Other administrations have similarly taken a hands-off approach to autonomous vehicles, in the name of “fostering innovation.” From the Obama administration through the first Trump administration and into the Biden White House, top government officials have cleared the way for self-driving cars to hit the road with as few regulatory roadblocks as possible. These officials have fully bought into the marketing materials put forward by the automakers and tech companies that autonomous vehicles could help solve the safety crisis on our roads — to say nothing about their potential as a cash cow for their owners.

This has continued up through today, with the US Department of Transportation recently announcing its intention to fast-track requests for exemptions from federal safety rules requiring autonomous vehicles to have traditional controls like steering wheels, pedals, and mirrors — vehicles like Tesla’s Cybercab. In the announcement, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy noted that the exemption process has been “bogging developers down in unnecessary red tape that makes it impossible to keep pace with the latest technologies.”

The rush to exempt automakers from certain safety requirements when it comes to self-driving cars should raise a lot of red flags, especially when it comes to Elon Musk, who has long thumbed his nose at those very rules. Tesla’s rush to be the first to bring partially autonomous technology to market has resulted in billions of dollars of revenue for the company — and also numerous deaths from the crashes involving the company’s driver-assist products. There have been at least 58 people killed while using Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving products over the years, according to a website tracker.

NHTSA isn’t turning a blind eye to those incidents — its launched a series of investigations into Autopilot and issued at least two recalls — but it lacks an ability to rein in Tesla. Last year, a group of six Democratic senators sounded the alarm about the hands-off approach to automation taken by NHTSA, questioning why the agency hasn’t ordered the company to disable its partially automated technology to prevent further crashes. The National Transportation Safety Board, NHTSA’s sister agency, has also blasted it for its inability to regulate companies like Tesla.

Keep in mind, all of this is prior to Trump’s second victory and Musk’s ascendency to the role of chief chainsaw wielder. Under DOGE, NHTSA has fewer people on staff to make the necessary calls when something goes wrong. Even if the agency does decide to drop the hammer on Tesla, who’s say some embedded DOGE appointee won’t overrule them? And would the decision even hold up in court if Tesla decides to ignore it?

In this regulatory vacuum, states are left holding the bag. California’s Department of Motor Vehicles effectively ended Cruise’s robotaxi adventures when it suspended its permit following a grisly crash that injured a pedestrian. It could do the same for Tesla should the company follow through on its plans to launch there. Texas has far fewer safeguards in place, though it’s making a belated attempt at correcting that.

But states are only supposed to regulate drivers. They lack the recall authority of the federal government, which can order a company to discontinue its autonomous technology if proven to be unsafe. But proving that takes time and resources — both of which the current administration seems unlikely to allow.

In the meantime, Musk has called the robotaxi launch a huge success. He has said that if everything goes well, we could see thousands more robotaxis on the road in the coming months, possibly even “a million” by the end of next year. And why not? There’s almost nothing standing in his way.