Donald Trump’s nominee for Transportation Secretary has pledged to allow ongoing safety investigations into Tesla vehicles to continue, despite the close relationship between the former president and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, January 20, the US Senate is grilling the former President’s picks for cabinet positions and whether they are suitable candidates.
The President-elect has tapped former US representative for Wisconsin Sean Duffy to be his Secretary of Transportation to follow on from Democrat Pete Buttigieg.
Sean Duffy made the commitment to follow through with the safety investigation during a US Senate hearing when questioned about potential political interference in safety probes.
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Elon Musk’s Tesla could face a safety investigation following Donald Trump’s inauguration next week
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Democratic Senator for Massachusetts Ed Markey pressed Duffy on the issue, asking: “Regardless of outside political pressure, can you commit to allowing (NHTSA) to follow the evidence and operate objectively?”
In a defiant response to the grilling, Duffy told Senators: “I will let NHTSA do their investigation.”
It comes after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) launched an investigation in October into 2.4 million Tesla vehicles equipped with Full Self-Driving software.
The probe was initiated following four reported collisions, including a fatal crash in 2023. The investigation forms part of a broader regulatory examination of Tesla’s advanced driver assistance systems.
The scrutiny comes at a crucial time as Musk seeks to shift Tesla’s focus towards self-driving technology and robotaxis.
Tesla, nor its billionaire founder Elon Musk, have yet to comment on the comments made by Duffy, although it could spell trouble for Musk as he continues his close relationship with Donald Trump.
The NHTSA has also opened a separate investigation into 2.6 million Tesla vehicles over the Actually Smart Summon feature, following reports of four crashes.
The agency said vehicles using the remote-control feature failed to detect posts and parked vehicles, leaving users with “too little reaction time to avoid a crash”.
This follows Tesla’s December 2023 recall of more than two million vehicles in the United States to install new safeguards in its Autopilot system.
NHTSA continues to evaluate whether the recall adequately addresses concerns about driver attention whilst using the system.
Duffy also revealed plans to ensure electric vehicles contribute to road maintenance costs through taxation, saying: “They should pay for use of our roads. How to do that, I think, is a little more challenging.”
Sean Duffy was the US representative for Wisconsin’s seventh congressional district from 2011 to 2019, although stepped down to care for his newborn daughter and eight other children.
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Sean Duffy appeared before Senators yesterday
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Following his exit from mainstream politics, he co-hosted The Bottom Line on Fox Business from January 2023, having previously appeared on The Real World: Boston and Road Rules: All Stars in the late 1990s.