Tesla Stocks rose Monday on a report that President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team plans to make a federal framework for regulating self-driving vehicles a top priority for the U.S. Transportation Department.

As of 9:43 a.m. ET, Tesla shares had risen 7.4% following the release of the Bloomberg News report, which cited unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

CNBC was unable to independently verify the report and has sought comment from the Trump team and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a unit of the Transportation Department charged with overseeing self-driving technologies.

Musk was a central figure in the business community pushing for Trump’s return to the White House ahead of this month’s election. The tech billionaire is now benefiting from the close relationship he has built with the Republican politician, who previously served a first presidential term between 2017 and 2021.

Last week, Trump picked Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency — or “DOGE” for short — which he said would end “government bureaucracy,” the “redundant ‘ would relax regulations and reduce ‘wasteful’ rules. expenditure.

A federal framework for regulating self-driving vehicles would be a major boon for Musk’s Tesla, which has been promising fully self-driving vehicles for several years but has so far failed to deliver a car that can be driven autonomously without a person is behind the wheel. .

The long-term vision for Tesla is to produce a fleet of so-called “robotaxis,” autonomous vehicles that can drive people around without the need for human supervision.

Last month, Musk showed off Tesla’s long-awaited robotaxi — a concept car called the “Cybercab,” a $30,000 two-seater vehicle with no steering wheels or pedals.

Tesla has already been beaten in the robotaxi race by Google’s Waymo venture, one of the few companies to successfully launch self-driving cars on public roads.

At an event unveiling Tesla’s Cybercab and “Robovan” vehicles, Musk said he expects Tesla to have “unattended” Full Self-Driving technology operational in Texas and California next year in the Model 3 and Model electric vehicles Y of the company.

Full Self-Driving, or FSD, is Tesla’s premium driver assistance system, currently available in an ‘attended’ version for Tesla electric vehicles. FSD currently requires a human driver at the wheel, who can steer or brake at any time.

According to Bloomberg, Trump’s transition team is reportedly looking for policy leaders for the Department of Transportation to develop a federal regulatory framework for self-driving vehicles.

They include Emil Michael, a former Uber executive, Republican Reps. Sam Graves of Missouri and Garret Graves of Louisiana, Bloomberg reported.