U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, the Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, raised concerns during a recent hearing about the Trump administration's reduction of resources at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). She argued that these cuts could limit the agency’s ability to regulate autonomous vehicle technology and ensure public safety as self-driving cars become more common.
“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. “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.”
Senator Cantwell pointed out that staff reductions at NHTSA resulted in fewer recall investigations and limited oversight. She stated that through DOGE cuts, the agency lost a quarter of its employees, leaving critical offices such as the Office of Automation with only four people. “Fewer resources mean less enforcement,” she said. “NHTSA launched 41 percent fewer recall investigations last year than in 2024.”
She noted that current federal regulations under the Motor Vehicle Safety Act were created decades ago for traditional vehicle components like bumpers and seat belts and are not sufficient for modern self-driving technology. “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.”
During her remarks at the hearing—which included testimony from executives at Tesla and Waymo as well as academic experts—Cantwell also addressed consumer protection issues related to binding arbitration agreements used by some autonomous vehicle companies.
“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?”
Professor Bryant Walker Smith responded: “The companies in this field are necessarily saying to regulators and to the public, ‘trust us,’ and that needs to come with substance, right? 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.”
The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee is responsible for reviewing legislation on commerce—including transportation matters—and operates from Washington D.C., according to its official website. The committee consists of members from both major parties who work together on policy affecting interstate commerce along with science-related issues.
Videos from Sen. Cantwell’s opening statement and Q&A session are available online.
