Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Job cuts at the US traffic safety regulator instigated by Elon Musk\u2019s so-called Department of Government Efficiency disproportionately hit staff assessing self-driving risks, hampering oversight of technology on which the world\u2019s richest man has staked the future of Tesla.Of roughly 30 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration workers dismissed in February as part of Musk\u2019s campaign to shrink the federal workforce, many were in the \u201coffice of vehicle automation safety\u201d, people familiar with the situation told the Financial Times.The cuts are part of mass firings by Doge that have affected at least 20,000 federal employees and raised widespread concern over potential conflicts of interest for Musk given many of the targeted agencies regulate or have contracts with his businesses.The NHTSA, which has been a thorn in Tesla\u2019s side for years, has eight active investigations into the company after receiving \u2014 and publishing \u2014 more than 10,000 complaints from members of the public. Morale at the agency, which has ordered dozens of Tesla recalls and delayed the rollout of the group\u2019s self-driving and driver-assistance software, has plunged following Doge\u2019s opening salvo of job cuts, according to current and former NHTSA staff.\u201cThere is a clear conflict of interest in allowing someone with a business interest influence over appointments and policy at the agency regulating them,\u201d said one former senior NHTSA figure, who was not among the Doge-led lay-offs.\u00a0Remaining agency employees are now warily watching the experience of other federal regulators that have crossed Musk\u2019s companies.\u201cMusk has attacked the Federal Aviation Administration and Federal Communications Commission to benefit SpaceX,\u201d said another former top official at the regulator. \u201cWhy would he spare NHTSA?\u201dMusk has repeatedly clashed with federal and state authorities. Last year he called for the FAA chief to resign and sharply criticised the FCC for revoking a 2022 deal for his satellite telecommunications company Starlink to provide rural broadband.The NHTSA said in a statement that safety remained its top priority and that it would enforce the law on any carmaker in line with its rules and investigations. \u201cThe agency\u2019s investigations have been and will continue to be independent,\u201d it added.Musk, Doge and Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment.The dismissals, instigated by email on Valentine\u2019s Day, affected roughly 4 per cent of the agency\u2019s 800 staff and included employees who had been promised promotions as well as newly hired workers, according to seven people familiar with the matter. Staff working on vehicle automation safety were disproportionately affected, some of the people said, because the division was only formed in 2023 so comprised many newer hires still on probation. \u00a0The email cited poor performance as a reason for the dismissals. However, one senior figure still at the NHTSA rejected the notion that this was the basis for the lay-offs. Another said morale was low after \u201csome huge talent losses\u201d. Doge\u2019s actions could hamper Tesla\u2019s plans, according to one laid-off agency worker, who said the dismissals would \u201ccertainly weaken NHTSA\u2019s ability to understand self-driving technologies\u201d.\u00a0\u201cThis is an office that should be on the cutting edge of how to handle AVs [autonomous vehicles] and figuring out what future rulemaking should look like,\u201d said another former NHTSA employee. \u201cIt would be ironic if Doge slowed down Tesla.\u201dThe company has a lot riding on the swift success of its so-called Full Self-Driving software.Musk has promised customers and investors that Tesla will launch a driverless ride-hailing service in Austin, Texas by June and start production of a fleet of autonomous \u201ccybercabs\u201d next year.To do so, Tesla needs an exemption from the NHTSA to operate a non-standard driverless vehicle on American roads because Musk\u2019s cybercabs have neither pedals nor a steering wheel.\u201cLetting Doge fire those in the autonomous division is sheer madness \u2014 we should be lobbying to add people to NHTSA,\u201d said one manager at Tesla. They \u201cneed to be developing a national framework for AVs, otherwise Tesla doesn\u2019t have a prayer for scale in FSD or robotaxis\u201d.The NHTSA\u2019s decision on the cybercab exemption and the future of its proposed AV STEP programme to evaluate and oversee driverless and assisted cars will be closely watched considering the high stakes for Tesla.Current and former NHTSA officials have privately expressed concerns about Musk\u2019s ambitious rollout plans and how he would wield his influence to ensure a speedy launch of the cybercab and unsupervised FSD on US roads.\u00a0The government could \u201cspeed up the [AV STEP] application process and weaken it in some way so the safety case is less onerous to meet,\u201d one person told the FT. The future of crash reporting is another area of concern for those at the agency, following reports that the Trump administration may seek to loosen or eliminate disclosure rules.After a spate of incidents, the NHTSA in 2021 introduced a standing general order that requires carmakers to report within 24 hours any serious accidents involving vehicles equipped with advanced driver assistance or automated driving systems.Enforcing the order has been a vital tool for the agency to launch investigations into Tesla and other carmakers because there is no federal regulatory framework to govern cars not under human control. It was critical for a recall of 2mn Teslas in December 2023 for an update that would force drivers to pay attention when its autopilot assistance software was engaged.\u201cCrash reporting is vital, the massive Tesla recall on autopilot could not have occurred without it. We got a huge amount of info on crashes and followed up with demands for more data and video,\u201d said one person involved in the recall. \u201cBut everything seems to be fair game right now.\u201dOne person familiar with Musk\u2019s thinking said the company felt unfairly penalised by the rules because its sensors and video recording are more advanced than rivals\u2019 so it files more complete data.\u201cReporters see that we are reporting more incidents \u2014 many of which have nothing to do with autopilot \u2014 and have told the wrong story about our safety record,\u201d the person said. \u201cThere is a healthy amount of frustration about that dynamic\u2009.\u2009.\u2009. the idea our bar for safety is lower is just wrong.\u201dThe NHTSA has shown no signs of backing down, overseeing three new recalls of Tesla vehicles since Trump took office, most recently ordering 46,000 Cybertrucks to be checked after discovering an exterior panel was prone to falling off because of faulty glue.Of its eight active investigations into Tesla vehicles, five concern Musk\u2019s claims about the capabilities of the company\u2019s Autopilot driver-assistance system and its FSD software \u2014 central promises of Tesla\u2019s value proposition, and the subject of thousands of consumer complaints.The agency has received an average of 20 per month on FSD since the software was launched, according to an FT analysis of more than 10,000 complaints. A sharp rise in complaints about so-called \u201cphantom braking\u201d at the start of 2022 triggered one of the investigations. In one, about a mid-October 2024 incident, a Tesla Model 3 in FSD suddenly stopped in front of a car that would have crashed into it had the Tesla driver not taken back control of the vehicle and accelerated.\u00a0\u201cSoftware is so far from being ready to be safely used,\u201d the Model 3 driver said in the complaint.\u00a0While multiple Tesla tech updates in the past two years have reduced complaints about braking glitches, other software issues persist. The FT analysis, which used artificial intelligence to categorise complaints, shows errors connected to driver-assist tools such as FSD and Autopilot still make up a large share of complaints made against the company in the past year.In February, the driver of a 2024 Cybertruck reported that FSD disengaged without warning, causing the vehicle to suddenly accelerate and nearly collide head-on with another car. The owner said they contacted Tesla service but the vehicle was neither inspected nor repaired.Former Apple executive Jonathan Morrison has been nominated by Trump as the NHTSA\u2019s next administrator and must find a way to navigate the agency through the perceived conflicts of interest with Musk, without being accused of stifling AV innovation.\u201cElon has done a lot of really interesting things with tech that were thought to be impossible,\u201d said one former top NHTSA official. \u201cWhat concerns me is that Tesla is not known for taking a slow and methodical approach, they move fast and break things and people are at risk because of that. There have been preventable deaths, so it\u2019s an immediate concern for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Job cuts at the US traffic safety regulator instigated by Elon Musk\u2019s so-called Department of Government Efficiency disproportionately hit staff assessing self-driving risks, hampering oversight of technology on which the world\u2019s richest man has staked the future of Tesla.Of roughly 30 National Highway Traffic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-270455","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270455\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}