NHTSA needs a wake-up call.

The agency rained on the $Tesla(TSLA.US) Cybercab launch by opening a probe into Tesla’s self-certification — specifically whether a vehicle with no steering wheel or pedals meets federal safety standards.

Question for NHTSA: why slow the rollout of autonomous vehicles when the best data we have says they’re 7-10x safer than human drivers? I suspect the answer is the march of nines.

With all due respect, NHTSA needs to update the rules written for human drivers and move faster. About 37k people died on U.S. roads last year. If robotaxis delivered even a 7x cut in fatalities, that number would be closer to 5k.

Source: Gene Munster