After overseeing the investigation into Tesla's Autopilot system in recent years, acting National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) chief Ann Carlson has announced plans to resign.
According to a report from Automotive News, Carlson has been the regulator's chief administrator since September 2022 and told employees via email this week that she would resign in cooperation with a law that limits how long officials can stay in office, according to a report from Automotive News shows. NHTSA Deputy Director Sophie Shulman will succeed Carlson, who will return to her former position as chief counsel by the end of January before leaving the U.S. auto regulator entirely.
Before Carlson became NHTSA's chief attorney in January 2021, she took a leave of absence from her previous position as an environmental law professor at UCLA. During her time at the regulator, Carlson also helped push for stricter fuel emissions standards for gasoline vehicles, some of which are set to take effect next year.
Carlson recently noted that the new U.S. fuel economy standards, which take effect in 2024, “will save consumers money at the pump, increase our energy independence and reduce harmful pollutants, including the greenhouse gases that cause climate change.”
The announcement of Carlson's departure comes shortly after NHTSA issued a “recall” this week requiring additional Autopilot safety measures. This represents the culmination of the agency's two-year investigation into advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), which began in August 2021. After the recall As previously mentioned, Tesla immediately addressed the issue by providing an over-the-air (OTA) update.
“One of the things we found is that drivers are not always paying attention when this system is activated,” Carlson said after the recall was announced.
In response to the recall, Tesla explained the introduction of stricter driver monitoring for Autopilot, writing: “The solution will include additional controls and alerts to the controls already present in the affected vehicles to further encourage the driver to fulfill their ongoing driving responsibilities, when Autosteer is activated.” This also includes keeping your hands on the steering wheel and paying attention to the road.”
“Depending on the vehicle hardware, additional controls may include, but are not limited to, increasing the prominence of visual warnings in the user interface, making it easier to turn the auto-steering system on and off, and additional controls when turning on the auto-steering system and when using the feature outside controlled access roads and when approaching. “Traffic controls and possible suspension of Autosteer use if the driver repeatedly fails to demonstrate continuous and sustained driving responsibility while the feature is activated.”
During her time at the agency, Carlson focused on airbag safety and the overall goal of reducing traffic fatalities, in addition to introducing approximately 50 other safety regulations. In the first nine months of 2023, U.S. traffic fatalities fell about 4.5 percent to 30,435 after the agency recorded a dramatic increase in deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic, it said in a statement Wednesday.
“While we are optimistic that we are finally seeing a reversal of the record number of deaths during the pandemic, this is no reason to celebrate,” Carlson said.
NHTSA has not had a Senate-confirmed administrator for much of the last six years. While the Biden administration nominated Carlson to continue in his role as administrator earlier this year, the White House later withdrew the recommendation due to Republican opposition to the decision. Biden has not yet announced a new pick for the position.
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