Tesla shares rise sharply as Trump team discusses easing regulations

Tesla shares rose more than 7 per cent in morning trading on Wall Street following reports that Donald Trump’s transition team is discussing easing regulations for self-driving vehicles.
Advisers to the president-elect are planning to make a federal framework to regulate self-driving vehicles a top priority for the US Department of Transportation, Bloomberg reported. Under the existing system, autonomous vehicle companies must seek regulatory approval in individual states.
The framework could accelerate the commercialisation of self-driving vehicles and benefit Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla and one of Trump’s biggest campaign backers, who has said that in the future all Tesla cars will be fully autonomous. Earlier this year Musk unveiled a two-seat “Cybercab” robotaxi without a steering wheel and foot pedals, due to go into production in 2026.
Shares in Tesla rose by $18.02, or 5.6 per cent, to close at $338.74 in New York.
Trump’s election victory on November 5 had already propelled the company past a $1 trillion market valuation mark: its shares have risen 28 per cent since the result.
Investors have been betting that Musk’s close relationship with Trump will influence new regulations for self-driving vehicles. Musk, the world’s richest person, who has been named co-head of the new government efficiency department, has criticised the state-by-state approval process required for self-driving vehicles in the US and described it as “incredibly painful”.
Last month he signalled that he would advocate for one federal approval process if Trump won. “If there’s a department of government efficiency,” Musk said, “I’ll try to help make that happen.”
Mamta Valechha, analyst at Quilter Cheviot, said: “A unified federal regulation could streamline this [approval process], allowing Tesla to push forward more rapidly with FSD [full self-driving testing].”
Tesla’s FSD technology, which has been in development for more than four years, is still not fully autonomous and requires driver supervision.
The technology is under a US regulatory investigation after four reported collisions involving Tesla vehicles equipped with the software, including a 2023 fatal crash.
The future regulation of self-driving vehicles will be directed by the next head of the US Department of Transportation. Emil Michael, a former Uber executive, has been tipped as the frontrunner for the position. Michael lists Musk’s rocket company SpaceX as one of a string of companies he either invests in or advises.