Tesla’s Fully Self-Driving (FSD) technology has received potentially good news, especially as the Trump team could have a significant impact on Tesla and its self-driving car project when it comes to the future direction of transport policy. According to foreign media reports, the Trump administration plans to make the ‘development of a federal framework for fully autonomous vehicles’ a core task of the Department of Transportation, with the aim of streamlining and accelerating the regulatory approval process for self-driving technology. The outside world is generally believed that this initiative will be conducive to self-driving car manufacturers, including Tesla, especially Tesla has always advocated relaxing the regulation of self-driving technology, to obtain more policy support.
Tesla’s autopilot layout
Tesla’s investment and layout in self-driving technology has been increasing in recent years, and in October 2023, Tesla released a heavy news – it launched a self-driving taxi called ‘Cybercab’. The special feature of this driverless taxi is that it not only does not have a steering wheel and pedals, but also relies entirely on the software and hardware autopilot system for operation, marking Tesla’s technological progress in the field of autonomous driving. In addition, Tesla has announced plans to begin mass production of the Robotaxi, or driverless taxi, from 2026, which is expected to further advance driverless travel services in the coming years.
Tesla’s ambitions are not just limited to producing self-driving cars, but also to promote self-driving mobility services globally. by the end of 2023, Tesla plans to launch public-facing self-driving taxi services in Texas and California, respectively. Despite these ambitious plans, Tesla still faces serious technical challenges and legal hurdles in promoting self-driving cars, especially in the U.S., where the legal framework for self-driving cars remains in a precarious state.
Legal and regulatory challenges in the United States
Currently, the regulatory framework for self-driving cars in the U.S. has not yet been unified, leading to different regulations for self-driving cars in different states. Particularly for companies like Tesla that operate across state lines, the state-by-state approach to regulations is time-consuming and labour-intensive, and has even impacted the deployment process of its self-driving technology. Tesla CEO Elon Musk publicly slammed existing interstate regulations on an October 2023 earnings call, saying that ‘state-by-state self-driving car regulations are painful’ and calling for a unified ‘national approval process’ that would allow for faster deployment across the United States. to promote the development of self-driving technology more quickly and efficiently across the United States.
Currently, the U.S. federal government has not passed any legislation specifically addressing self-driving cars. Although in 2017 and 2018, the House of Representatives and the Senate proposed the SELF Driving Act and the AV START Act, respectively, these two bills ultimately failed to pass. Under the SELF Driving Act, automakers could deploy up to 25,000 self-driving cars in the first year, with the cap rising to 100,000 per year within three years. However, as these bills failed to pass through deliberations successfully, the deployment of self-driving cars still faces numerous obstacles and relies heavily on states to formulate and enforce relevant regulations on their own.
The current state of state autonomous driving regulations
In the absence of uniform federal regulations, self-driving regulations in the U.S. have been left to individual states, leading to significant differences in policy. Currently, 19 states in the U.S. allow the deployment of self-driving cars, but each of these states requires self-driving cars to meet specific conditions. For example, most states require self-driving cars to meet federal motor vehicle safety regulations, comply with national safety and traffic laws, and ensure that the self-driving feature has a ‘minimum risk profile’. For example, Florida’s regulations require that self-driving vehicles must be able to automatically take safety measures to ensure that the vehicle stops and turns on hazard warning lights in any dangerous situation.
There are also 17 states that are silent on the regulation of self-driving cars, and these states have taken a relatively ambiguous stance on self-driving technology, neither explicitly prohibiting it nor introducing specific regulatory measures. The remaining 12 states, on the other hand, allow testing or pilot applications of self-driving cars in certain specific circumstances. Some of these states have more conservative legal frameworks, such as some states located in New England that take a cautious stance on self-driving technology; while states such as California and New Mexico have introduced some more cutting-edge testing regulations to encourage self-driving technology to be tested and perfected in real-world environments.
California – Tesla’s proving ground and competitive pressure
California has been Tesla’s largest market in the US and a major testing ground for Autopilot technology. Tesla got an early start on Autopilot testing in California, but compared to its competitors, Tesla’s test mileage and number of report submissions do not stand out. According to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), Tesla has only 562 miles of self-driving test miles in California since 2016, while Waymo, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet, has more than 13 million miles of test miles in California since 2014, and Waymo has successfully launched a driverless taxi service in several cities.
Nonetheless, California remains one of Tesla’s most important markets, and Tesla is constantly optimising its FSD system to cope with the fierce competition in the market. Tesla’s Fully Self-Driving System relies on deep learning and computer vision technologies, and is constantly iterated through OTA (Over-the-Air) upgrades, in an effort to dominate the self-driving competition in the future.
Potential impact of the Trump administration
According to Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, autopilot technology companies such as Tesla would benefit greatly if the Trump administration were able to pass the development of a unified federal regulatory framework. The Trump administration has made clear its supportive stance on reducing regulation and promoting innovation in its past administrations, especially in the self-driving space, where relaxing regulatory restrictions and unifying standards across the country would greatly ease the compliance challenges companies face when operating across state lines.
If the Trump administration is able to push forward federal legislation on self-driving technology and set up a unified approval process, this will greatly accelerate the popularity of self-driving technology, and may also provide a more relaxed policy environment for Tesla, helping it accelerate the mass production and rollout of fully self-driving cars in the coming years.
Conclusion
Tesla’s ambitions and technological advancements in the field of autonomous driving are facing unprecedented opportunities and challenges. If the Trump administration can successfully push through federal legislation on self-driving cars, it may bring more favourable policies for Tesla and other self-driving companies, helping them break through the technical and legal barriers they are currently facing, and accelerating the process of the popularisation of fully autonomous driving cars. However, the popularity of self-driving technology still needs to overcome many technical difficulties and public acceptance, and the road ahead is still full of challenges.
