Tesla shares surged by as much as 8 per cent on Monday morning after reports that Donald Trump was preparing to reverse his previous opposition to self-driving cars in the United States.
Bloomberg News said on Monday that members of the president-elect’s transition team want the Department of Transport to create a new federal regulation framework for autonomous vehicles (AV), citing inside sources.
As recently as October, Trump told the Detroit Economy Club that he found AVs “concerning” and would “stop [them] from operating on American roads”.
If true, the change of stance would be a major boon for Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who donated hundreds of millions of dollars to Trump’s campaign and has been so closely involved in planning Trump’s new government that he has styled himself the “First Buddy”.
It is also an alarming omen for the fairness and integrity of Trump’s second term, which critics allege is likely to ring in unprecedented levels of cronyism and corruption.
Tesla is a leading player in the nascent AV market and is heavily invested in “robotaxis” as a future line of business. It has successfully introduced partial self-driving technology to its cars, but has repeatedly missed Musk’s promised deadlines for “full self-driving”, which requires no human supervision.
Musk, who is estimated to be the world’s richest person thanks to his large stake in Tesla, has already been appointed to a government advisory panel and has reportedly been sitting in on calls with foreign leaders and counselling Trump on appointments to his cabinet.
Tesla itself is currently being sued or investigated by six different federal agencies, which may be ordered to relent by the incoming Trump government.
Meanwhile, Trump has been accused of “brazen, quid pro quo corruption” for his campaign trail offers to reward donors by enacting or dismantling policy on their behalf.
