By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump has nominated an Apple employee to serve as the nation’s top auto safety regulator overseeing a number of ongoing safety probes into Tesla.
Jonathan Morrison, who served as chief counsel of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration during the first Trump administration and had previously worked for the California New Car Dealers Association, has been nominated to serve as the agency’s administrator, according to Senate records.
Last month, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he would allow an ongoing government probe into Tesla’s advanced driver assistance system to continue. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is a close adviser to Trump who is working on an effort to drastically slash the size of the federal government and has previously criticized numerous NHTSA actions.
Two weeks before Trump took office, NHTSA opened a probe into 2.6 million Tesla vehicles over reports of crashes involving a feature that allows users to move their cars remotely.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Morrison’s LinkedIn page said he began work at Apple in May 2021. Apple did not immediately respond to a question about whether he is still at the company.
NHTSA in October opened an investigation into 2.4 million Tesla vehicles equipped with Full Self-Driving (FSD) software after four reported collisions, including a fatal 2023 crash.
NHTSA opened a preliminary evaluation into Tesla’s Actually Smart Summon feature over reports of four crashes involving Tesla vehicles.
Tesla in December 2023 recalled more than two million U.S. vehicles to install new safeguards in its Autopilot advanced driver-assistance system. NHTSA is still probing whether that recall is adequate to address concerns drivers are not paying attention.
In October 2018, Morrison – then chief counsel at NHTSA – told Tesla in a letter the automaker had made inaccurate safety claims that violated the agency’s guidelines.
Duffy last month signed an order directing NHTSA to rescind landmark fuel economy standards issued under Biden that aimed to drastically reduce fuel use for cars and trucks.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Sharon Singleton)
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