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."

"However, the Federal Motor [Vehicle] Safety Standards were designed to regulate bumpers, and car doors, and seat belts…This revolutionary technology needs a new approach."

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation 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 hearing 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."

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."

Today's 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 focused on current customers of self-driving cars, expressing her concerns that AV companies, including Waymo, are using binding arbitration agreements to deny users the ability to hold companies responsible in the event of an accident.

"So we are not going to take this common standard in software where I'm downloading a game or some app and now we'll apply it to cars," said Sen. Cantwell. "I'm not going to sign a binding arbitration agreement with Waymo and then basically say, 'I can't sue them. I'm just stuck in binding arbitration.' I guarantee you this Congress isn't going to be for that either. The Senate has already taken action trying to be more aggressive. But how do we get this to the point where there is true liability, so that people will build products and be accountable for them?"

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

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