This seems like a pretty key piece: This separation of responsibilities has contributed to a culture gap between the agencies. As the agency responsible for wr

This seems like a pretty key piece: This separation of responsibilities has contributed to a culture gap between the agencies. As the agency responsible for writing regulations, NHTSA has to trade safety off against other considerations like economic costs, the lobbying clout of automakers, and the risk of consumer backlash. In contrast, NTSB's rulings are purely advisory, which frees the agency to doggedly advocate strong safety measures. (NTSB is the one “blasting” Tesla). It’s hard to be completely sympathetic to a system-safety-at-all-costs viewpoint, in that slowing down the development of actual full self driving with superhuman performance by even a year due to increased friction on making changes has severe hidden costs - 38,000 are killed every year in the US alone in car-related incidents, and many more are severely injured with long lasting repercussions. And many of those are in the prime of their lives, so it’s worse than an apples to apples comparison with death counts from many ailments would suggest. I think the NHTSA letting things develop on their own for a bit is actually the smart move here, all things considered. That said, Tesla’s marketing strategy is pretty borderline.