Federal agency investigating Elon Musk's Tesla hit with DOGE layoffs

WASHINGTON − The federal agency investigating Tesla's self-driving technology has laid off about 4% of its workforce, a spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Monday.

The firings are part of President Donald Trump's mass purge of the federal workforce steered by Tesla CEO Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.

"The last administration grew NHTSA by a whopping 30%. Even with these modest efficiencies, NHTSA is still considerably larger today than it was four years ago," an agency spokesman said in a statement. "We have retained positions critical to the mission of saving lives, preventing injuries, and reducing economic costs due to road traffic crashes."

In October the NHTSA opened an investigation into about 2.4 million Tesla vehicles with self-driving capabilities following four reported crashes including a collision in 2023 that killed a pedestrian.

The NHTSA launched a separate investigation in January of 2.6 million Teslas following crashes involving a feature that allows drivers to move their cars remotely. That same month, the NHTSA announced recalls of more than 230,000 Teslas over issues with certain models' rearview cameras

The NHTSA employed about 800 workers before the cuts.

The spokesman did not say which jobs had been cut, or whether the fired employees were involved in the investigations of Tesla. The spokesman said the NHTSA "will continue to enforce the law on all manufacturers of motor vehicles and equipment, in accordance with the Vehicle Safety Act and our data-driven, risk-based investigative process."

Earlier this month, Trump nominated Jonathan Morrison, former NHTSA legal counsel in the first Trump administration, who most recently worked as a lawyer for Apple, as the new administrator of NHTSA.

Contributing: Reuters. Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.