President-elect Donald Trump's transition team reportedly plans to make federal approval of self-driving cars a priority for his nominee to lead the Transportation Department — a move that could benefit Trump ally and confidant Elon Musk.
Trump's advisers are looking for policy leaders who are prepared to develop a framework for regulating autonomous vehicles, Bloomberg reported Sunday night, citing people familiar with the matter.
Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla Motors, last month unveiled a prototype of a two-seat "Cybercab" without a steering wheel or control pedals and said the company would start building them by 2026.
Musk also said he expected Tesla's Model 3 and Model Y vehicles would be operating without driver supervision in California and Texas by next year.
But U.S. regulations now pose major hurdles to Musk's plans for the electric vehicles, including a cap that limits how many can be deployed onto American roads, Bloomberg said.
During Tesla's recent third-quarter earnings call, Musk said that "there should be a federal approval process for autonomous vehicles" and that he'd try to make that happen "for everyone, not just Tesla," according to a transcript posted by the Motley Fool website.
Trump has since appointed Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to lead an independent Department of Government Efficiency, saying they would help "dismantle" the federal bureaucracy and "slash excess regulations."
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, part of the Transportation Department, allows automakers to seek permission to deploy up to 2,500 self-driving vehicles annually under rules that exempt them from federal safety standards.
But efforts to raise that cap to as many as 100,000 have repeatedly failed to win approval in Congress, Bloomberg said.
On Saturday, Reuters reported that former Uber executive Emil Michael, a Trump donor and tech entrepreneur who knows Musk socially, is a leading contender to be nominated as the next transportation secretary.
Other candidates include reelected U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., outgoing Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., and Fox News host Sean Duffy, a former Republican House member from Wisconsin, Reuters said, citing multiple sources familiar with the matter.
