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.”
It’s been going on a long time, look at how cozy Boeing was with regulators
Boeing want cozy with them, it employed them, and when they spoke up about it, they ended up dead. Whether from a conspiracy, or depression at the state or their careers and conscience, Boeing and the agency capture that allows shitty planes to exist bears the responsibility.