Musk’s Doge Fired Self-drive Car Safety Experts at Agency That Regulates Tesla

Job cuts at the US traffic safety regulator instigated by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency disproportionately hit staff assessing self-driving risks, hampering oversight of technology on which the world’s richest man has staked the future of Tesla.

Of roughly 30 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration workers dismissed in February as part of Musk’s campaign to shrink the federal workforce, many were in the “office of vehicle automation safety”, people familiar with the situation told the Financial Times.

The NHTSA, which has been a thorn in Tesla’s side for years, has eight active investigations into the company after receiving — and publishing — more than 10,000 complaints from members of the public.

“There is a clear conflict of interest in allowing someone with a business interest influence over appointments and policy at the agency regulating them,” said one former senior NHTSA figure, who was not among the Doge-led lay-offs. 

The dismissals, instigated by email on Valentine’s Day, affected roughly 4 per cent of the agency’s 800 staff and included employees who had been promised promotions as well as newly hired workers, according to seven people familiar with the matter.

Doge’s actions could hamper Tesla’s plans, according to one laid-off agency worker, who said the dismissals would “certainly weaken NHTSA’s ability to understand self-driving technologies”. 

“This is an office that should be on the cutting edge of how to handle AVs [autonomous vehicles] and figuring out what future rulemaking should look like,” said another former NHTSA employee. “It would be ironic if Doge slowed down Tesla.”

“Letting Doge fire those in the autonomous division is sheer madness — we should be lobbying to add people to NHTSA,” said one manager at Tesla. They “need to be developing a national framework for AVs, otherwise Tesla doesn’t have a prayer for scale in FSD [Full Self-Driving]or robotaxis”.

Of its eight active investigations into Tesla vehicles, five concern Musk’s claims about the capabilities of the company’s Autopilot driver-assistance system and its FSD software — central promises of Tesla’s value proposition, and the subject of thousands of consumer complaints.

The agency has received an average of 20 per month on FSD since the software was launched, according to an FT analysis of more than 10,000 complaints.