Cantwell Warns Trump Administration Gutting of NHTSA Puts Americans at Risk as Self-Driving Cars Take to the Road in Increasing Numbers

"…We have seen the risk of letting companies beta-test on our roads with no guardrails."; Cantwell cites death of Stanwood's Jeffrey Nissen, who in April 2024 was struck and killed by a Tesla operating on self-driving mode.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and senior member of the Finance Committee, warned that the Trump administration's gutting of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will make it impossible for the agency to regulate autonomous vehicle technology to protect consumers while at the same time support the future growth of self-driving cars in the United States. Sen. Cantwell also emphasized the importance of ensuring consumers have a means for holding Autonomous Vehicle (AV) companies accountable.

"Fully autonomous vehicles offer the potential to reduce crashes on roads, but we have seen the risk of letting companies beta-test on our roads with no guardrails," said Sen. Cantwell at a Commerce Committee hearing this week on the future of AVs. "In 2024 a report from NHTSA linked Tesla's autopilot to hundreds of crashes, including at least 13 fatal crashes and many more injuries. Safety advocates have linked 65 fatalities to Tesla's automated technologies."

"These tragedies have occurred in my state," she noted. "In April 2024, Jeffrey Nissen, from Stanwood, Washington was killed when Tesla's autopilot system failed to recognize his stopped motorcycle. Tesla was allowed to market their technology-which they knew needed human supervision-as Autopilot because there were no federal guardrails. In fact, it was the state of California, not the federal government, that forced Tesla to change its marketing or lose the ability to sell in that state."

Sen. Cantwell sharply criticized efforts by the Trump administration to gut NHTSA, the federal agency responsible for ensuring vehicle safety and developing safety standards. She noted that through DOGE cuts, the agency lost 25 percent of its employees, and at one point the Office of Automation-responsible for overseeing autonomous vehicle technology-had just four people.

"Fewer resources mean less enforcement," said Sen. Cantwell. "NHTSA launched 41 percent fewer recall investigations last year than in 2024."

Sen. Cantwell emphasized that the technology requires a new regulatory approach beyond the existing Motor Vehicle Safety Act, which was enacted 60 years ago. However, she stressed that developing these new standards requires a properly resourced agency with technical expertise.

"The Federal Motor Safety Standards has prevented over 18 million crashes," said Sen. Cantwell. "However, the Federal Motor [Vehicle] Safety Standards were designed to regulate bumpers, and car doors, and seat belts and a variety of things that they're not on top of today. This revolutionary technology needs a new approach to safety that provides for flexible guardrails for beta testing and a clear path to safe commercial deployment. It needs to have an educated, as I just mentioned, strong, safety oversight from officials and the resources to make it the gold standard, just like we need in aviation."

The hearing included testimony from Lars Moravy, Vice President of Vehicle Engineering at Tesla, Waymo's Chief Safety Officer Mauricio Pena, Jeff Farrah, Chief Executive Office for the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association, and Professor Bryant Walker Smith, Associate Professor of Law at the University of South Carolina's Rice School of Law. In her questioning, Sen. Cantwell discussed concerns about self-driving car manufacturers attempting to avoid liability when their cars are involved in accidents. Mr. Nissen's family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Tesla.

"How do we get this to the point where there is true liability, so that people will build products and be accountable for them," asked Sen. Cantwell.

"The companies in this field are necessarily saying to regulators and to the public, 'trust us,' and that needs to come with substance, right?," responded Professor Smith. "With great power comes great responsibility. So, they need to say, here's what we're doing, here's why we believe it's safe, and here's why you can trust us. And then that needs to be interrogated by, as you've described, competent, capable, well-resourced officials. The idea that our automated driving office could fit in the McDonald's, or our defects agency could fit in a warehouse, is astounding to me, for a country of this size and sophistication."

Click HERE for video of Sen. Cantwell's opening statement,HERE for video of her Q&A, andHERE for the full transcript.