The Trump administration will make it easier to deploy self-driving cars on US roads and loosen crash reporting requirements, the most significant changes yet to federal rules on autonomous vehicles championed by Tesla chief executive Elon Musk.
“This administration understands that we’re in a race with China to out-innovate, and the stakes couldn’t be higher,” US transportation secretary Sean Duffy said on Thursday. “Our new framework will slash red tape and move us closer to a single national standard that spurs innovation and prioritises safety.”
The changes by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) were central demands of Musk and his electric-vehicle maker Tesla, which has pioneered driver assistance and autonomous software on its more than 2mn US vehicles.