The Trump administration will allow self-driving vehicles to be exempt from several safety regulations for testing amid efforts to compete with China, Transport Secretary Sean Duffy said Thursday.
According to a letter from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, U.S. developers of motor vehicles are now able to access the exemption program for non-commercial purposes, including research or demonstrations.
The Transportation Bureau also said it would “rationalize” reporting for vehicles with autonomous systems.
“The US was in the midst of an innovation race with China, and its stakes were never high,” Duffy said in a video posted to Social Platform X.
“The long-term goal is to bring us closer to a single national standard,” he added. “We don’t want 50 states with 50 standards.”
The Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association (AVIA) touted the announcement as “a bold and necessary step.”
“We look forward to working with Secretary Duffy and his team to implement smart, positive policies that will help ensure roads safer, expand mobility, strengthen supply chains and drive generations of American economic growth,” Avia CEO Jeff Farrar said in a statement.
The move will likely benefit Elon Musk’s Tesla, which is focused on self-driving cars.
The company has long expanded the autonomous driving capabilities available in electric vehicles. However, recently I have turned my attention to the completely autonomous Robotaxis.
Musk said Tuesday in a call to the company’s quarterly revenue, that it plans to begin offering paid Robotakshi vehicles in Austin in June, and that it will begin offerings in “many other cities” across the United States by the end of the year.
The revenue call reached a key moment for the company as Musk tried to reassure investors that he would devote more time to Tesla after the company reported a 71% decline in revenue.
Tesla’s CEO said Tuesday that he will dial and dial his work in the Trump administration starting next month. Musk’s research, heading the government’s Efficiency Bureau, has faced a remarkable heavily acquired in his EV company over the past few months.
