Trump Reportedly Planning to Let Self-Driving Cars Loose

Now that Trump is in the White House, Musk could fast-track the Cybercab.

Green Light

President-elect Donald Trump's incoming administration is expected to attempt to widen the rules governing self-driving cars — news that has sent Tesla's stock soaring by almost more than five percent on Monday.

Loosening regulations surrounding the rules of driverless vehicles could be a boon for Tesla CEO Elon Musk, as Bloomberg reports, who has been trying his darndest to cozy up to Trump.

Musk has bet his EV maker's fate on the eventual rollout of an AI-enabled "robotaxi" service, designed to rival the likes of Alphabet's Waymo. And with fewer roadblocks in place, investors are clearly giddy at the prospect of Tesla unleashing its autonomous vehicles on the world.

That's despite some glaring shortcomings with Tesla's self-driving tech, leading to hundreds of collisions and plenty of terrifying close calls, as well as several investigations by federal regulators.

Red Light

According to Bloomberg, Trump's transition team is looking to staff its Transportation Department with employees willing to create a framework surrounding the regulation of self-driving vehicles.

However, whether Trump's picks will be able to fully open the floodgates remains to be seen. Any major revisions to self-driving car rules will still require bipartisan support in Congress.

But given Musk's proximity to Trump, the Tesla CEO has plenty of incentive to push for more lax rules. Alphabet's Waymo has already cemented itself as the autonomous ride-hailing service to beat, with General Motors' Cruise falling off following a fateful collision and a disastrous year.

And Musk is aiming high, having shown off an early prototype for a steering-wheel-less "Cybercab" during a flashy event earlier this year. Waymo's current fleet still features both pedals and steering wheels.

But nagging safety concerns have slowed progress considerably. Case in point, a bill to increase the number of deployments of self-driving cars, which is currently limited to just 2,500 vehicles by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, stalled in Congress.

In other words, the Trump administration will have to play its cards carefully to open doors for Musk — and the question of what Trump feels he really owes Musk looms larger than ever.

More on self-driving cars: "Self-Driving" Cars Have a Dirty Secret