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Elon Musk ’s Department of Government Efficiency is firing almost one-half of a small government team that regulates autonomous vehicle , The Washington Postreported .

The firings are part of a broader 10 % reduction at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ( NHTSA ) as a result of lighting of probationary doer and buyout crack , The Post reported , citing anonymous sources .

The sacking come ahead of Tesla ’s plannedrobotaxi launching in Austinlater this year .

The NHTSA has investigate Tesla several times due toaccidents that happened while Autopilot , Tesla ’s advanced number one wood aid software , was betroth . Some of the agency ’s probes into Tesla are still open . In October , the NHTSA opened anew investigationinto Tesla ’s so - called “ Full Self - Driving ( Supervised ) ” computer software after four crashes in low profile situations were reported , one of which resulted in the death of a footer .

Tesla ’s FSD is said to be an innovative driver assistance system that can do automated driving in urban and highway surround . Musk ’s goal is to better the camera - base software to the point of full liberty by this summertime , a finish that he has say is right around the corner for years .

apart from firing people who sour with clangour tryout dummies or facilitate land get safety Ulysses Grant funding , DOGE eliminated three of about seven employees in a fresh office commit to overseeing self-directed vehicle , cover The Post .

The Post cited its sources as saying they trust these cuts will affect the Union governing ’s power to understand the safety case behind Tesla ’s vehicles .

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Other companies will also be affected by NHTSA ’s approach to regulation , including Alphabet ’s Waymo and Amazon ’s Zoox . Both company are facing their owninvestigationsforsafety incidentsrelated to their independent driving software .

TechCrunch has reached out to NHTSA and DOGE to find out more .