Trump team targets auto crash rule aiding Tesla

President-elect Donald Trump's transition team wants to scrap a federal rule for automakers, a move that would benefit Elon Musk's Tesla.

That's according to a document, in which Trump's team recommended doing away with a requirement to report car crashes.

Removing the rule could cripple the government’s ability to investigate and regulate the safety of vehicles with automated-driving systems.

Under the program, Tesla has reported most of the crashes – more than 1,500 – to federal safety regulators.

The automaker has also been targeted in investigations by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, including three stemming from the crash-disclosure data.

Sources said that Tesla despises the rule, as it believes NHTSA presents the data in ways that mislead consumers about the automaker's safety.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the world's richest person, spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars helping Trump get elected president in November, and has been promised a post in the new administration.

The Trump transition team, Musk and Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.

According to the document Trump's team called the car-crash reporting measure a mandate for "excessive" data collection.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group representing most major automakers except Tesla, has also criticized the crash reporting requirement as burdensome.

In addition to ditching the reporting rule, Trump's team recommended the incoming administration "liberalize" autonomous-vehicle regulation and enact "basic regulations to enable development" of the industry.