WASHINGTON, July 15 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's

nominee to head the nation's auto safety regulator will argue on

Wednesday that the agency must actively oversee self-driving

vehicle technology, a potential sign of a tougher approach than

some critics expected.

Jonathan Morrison, chief counsel of the National Highway Traffic

Safety Administration in the first Trump administration, will

testify to the U.S. Senate that autonomous vehicles offer

potential benefits but also unique risks.

"NHTSA cannot sit back and wait for problems to arise with

such developing technologies, but must demonstrate strong

leadership," Morrison said in written testimony seen by Reuters.

The comments suggested NHTSA will continue to closely

scrutinize self-driving vehicles. Some critics of the technology

had expressed alarm over NHTSA staff cuts this year under a

cost-cutting campaign led by Elon Musk, who was a close adviser

to Trump and is CEO of self-driving automaker Tesla.

The Musk-Trump alliance prompted some critics to

speculate that NHTSA would go easy on self-driving vehicle

developers. But the relationship began to unravel in late May

over Trump's spending plans, and the two are now locked in a

feud.

NHTSA said last month it was seeking information from Tesla

about social media videos of robotaxis and self-driving cars

Tesla was testing in Austin, Texas. The videos were alleged to

show one of the vehicles using the wrong lane and another

speeding.

Since October, NHTSA has been investigating 2.4 million

Tesla vehicles with full self-driving technology after four

reported collisions, including a 2023 fatal crash.

"The technical and policy challenges surrounding

these new technologies must be addressed," Morrison's

testimony said. "Failure to do so will result in products that

the public

will not accept and the agency will not tolerate."

Other companies in the self-driving sector also were

subjects of NHTSA investigations including Alphabet's

Waymo,

which last year faced reports its robotaxis

may have broken traffic laws. Waymo in May recalled 1,200

self-driving vehicles, and the probe remains open.

Regulatory scrutiny increased after 2023 when a

pedestrian was seriously injured by a GM

Cruise self-driving car

.

The first recorded death of a pedestrian related to

self-driving technology was in 2018 in Tempe, Arizona.