The TL;DR in one quote:
Job cuts at the US traffic safety regulator instigated by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency disproportionately hit staff assessing self-driving risks, hampering oversight of technology on which the world’s richest man has staked the future of Tesla.
An interesting quote from a Tesla manager:
“Letting Doge fire those in the autonomous division is sheer madness—we should be lobbying to add people to NHTSA,” said one manager at Tesla. They “need to be developing a national framework for AVs, otherwise Tesla doesn’t have a prayer for scale in FSD or robotaxis.”
Yeeeeuuup.
This is certainly going to improve the prospects of assembled in US cars getting exported…
Oh well, fuck it all I guess, burn it all down.
I’m sure Elon will try suing the EU to force them to buy his cars next.
That is how the free market works: When people don’t wanna buy what you are selling, threaten to sue them for not volunarily agreeing to purchase your service or product.