Tesla shares soared nearly 5% Monday after Bloomberg News reported that President-elect Donald Trump’s team plans to prioritize a federal regulatory framework for autonomous vehicles. CNBC reported.
This decision, if confirmed, could accelerate Tesla’s ambitions in autonomous driving.
THE Bloomberg The report, citing unnamed sources, suggests the framework will be a key priority for the U.S. Department of Transportation under the Trump administration. CNBC said it had not yet verified the allegations and was awaiting responses from Trump’s team and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Elon Musk, a strong Trump supporter in the recent election, could benefit from this regulatory change. Musk was recently named head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tasked with cutting bureaucracy and easing regulations.
Tesla is working to develop fully autonomous vehicles and recently unveiled its “Cybercab”, a two-seater robotaxi concept, as well as the “Robovan”. While Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) system remains “supervised,” Musk has projected unsupervised FSD technology into Model 3 and Model Y vehicles as early as next year.
Despite these advances, Tesla faces competition from Google’s Waymo, which has already deployed robotaxis on public roads.
Trump’s transition team is reportedly evaluating candidates, including former Uber executive Emil Michael and Republican lawmakers Sam Graves and Garret Graves, to guide the federal regulatory effort.