The Trump crew agrees with Tesla to get rid of the accident reporting requirement, a report says

According to a Reuters report, President-elect Donald Trump's transition team plans to eliminate existing car accident reporting requirements to safety authorities.

The report cites a document obtained by Reuters that lays out the transition team's 100-day strategy for automotive policy. In the document, the team says the requirement to report accidents results in “excessive” data collection, according to Reuters.

The demand was denounced by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who spent over a quarter of a billion dollars to help Trump get elected. Musk was also appointed by Trump to head the newly created Department of Government Efficiency.

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The existing federal accident reporting program has been in place since 2021. Under the program, Tesla reported the most accidents, more than 1,500, to safety authorities, according to Reuters. Analysis of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) crash data also found that Tesla was responsible for 40 of 45 fatal crashes reported to regulators through Oct. 15.

The automaker is under surveillance by the NHTSA because of its so-called “Full Self-Driving Software” (FSD). In October, regulators opened an investigation into 2.4 million Tesla vehicles equipped with FSD. The regulator has also asked Tesla to stop making misleading claims about FSD's autonomous capabilities and reiterate that the software merely provides a driver assistance/assistance system.

NHTSA data from the program has also led to 10 investigations at six companies and nine safety recalls.

In September, NHTSA fined Cruise, General Motors' robotaxi startup, for failing to report an incident in 2023. GM announced this week that it would stop developing Cruise as a single unit and instead focus on a single unit focused on autonomous and assisted driving.

Last month, it was reported that the Trump administration plans to make a federal framework for self-driving vehicles a top priority for the Department of Transportation. The new rules currently being discussed would not only loosen regulations on self-driving vehicles, but also increase the cap on the number of autonomous vehicles allowed on public roads.