Security Update

University of Texas graduate John Brennan nominated as CIA's new director

University of Texas alum John Brennan has been nominated by President Barack Obama to become the new director of the CIA, the White House announced Tuesday.

Brennan, who completed his undergraduate degree at Fordham University and received his master’s at UT in government in 1980, currently serves as Obama’s chief counterterrorism adviser. While he is expected to be confirmed, he also stands to face a probing round of questions in his senate confirmation hearings.

As reported by the Associated Press, Senators Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and John McCain, R-A.Z., have publicly expressed their plans to use Brennan’s nomination, by way of delaying or blocking his confirmation, as leverage to cull answers from the Obama administration about the mishandling of the attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi.

"My support for a delay in confirmation is not directed at Mr. Brennan, but is an unfortunate, yet necessary, action to get information from this administration," Graham said in a statement. "I have tried — repeatedly — to get information on Benghazi, but my requests have been repeatedly ignored."

Last month, an independent review board released a report that cited "systematic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels" in the State Department as the reason the attack in Benghazi, where U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed, was able to be carried out.

Senator McCain has also said he intends to question Brennan’s advocacy of “enhanced interrogation techniques,” including waterboarding, during his time at the CIA under the Bush administration following 9/11.

Brennan has since walked back from this stance, and has publicly decried those interrogation techniques, after withdrawing consideration for the CIA director post in 2008 after criticism mounted that some of the interrogation techniques he supported amounted to torture. Following his withdrawal, Obama appointed Brennan his chief counterterrorism adviser.

The UT grad has recently made strong public support of U.S.-led drone, or unmanned, strikes on foreign enemies, including Pakistan, Yemen, Libya and Afghanistan.

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Defensive Driving

Austin-based Tesla faces new probe focused on remote driving feature

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating 2.6 million Teslas.

Federal regulators have opened an investigation into 2.6 million Teslas after reports of crashes involving the use of company technology that allows drivers to remotely command their vehicle to return to them, or move to another location, using a phone app.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also said Tuesday, January 7 that Austin-based Tesla did not report any of the accidents. Tesla is under order to report crashes on “publicly accessible roads” involving vehicles being operated through its autonomous driving technology.

The new investigation follows another probe launched in October looking into the company's “Full Self-Driving” system after getting reports of crashes in low-visibility conditions, including one that killed a pedestrian. That investigation covers 2.4 million Teslas from the 2016 through 2024 model years.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

One driver filed a complaint after a crash while using Tesla's “Actually Smart Summon” technology and NHTSA is looking into another three similar incidents based on media reports, the NHTSA said. The agency is looking into 12 total incidents reported by users of the technology.

Each of the vehicles failed to detect posts and other parked vehicles, according to the NHTSA.

Regulators say the vehicles struck objects because the users had "too little reaction time to avoid a crash, either with the available line of sight or releasing the phone app button, which stops the vehicle’s movement.”

Shares of Tesla Inc. slid more than 4 percent in late afternoon trading Tuesday.

Musk has complained that U.S. regulations are too onerous and are holding back the development of self-driving cars. Ethics experts are worried that once President-elect Donald Trump takes office, Musk will push him to ease oversight of Tesla, which just suffered its first decline in annual sales in more than a decade.

Musk donated an estimated $250 million to Trump's presidential campaign and is a frequent guest at Trump's Mar-a-Lago, vetting cabinet nominees and meeting with foreign heads of state. Trump has put Musk in charge of an advisory group, the Department of Government Efficiency, that will recommend where to cut government expenses and staff at federal agencies and reduce regulation.

The NHTSA said it will look into the top speed that Teslas can reach when users deploy its “summons” technology, as well as restrictions on public roads and line of sights requirements. It also said it expects to check for any “connectivity delays" with the app that could result in increased stopping distance.

Tesla’s Model 3 owner’s manual says that its “summons” feature is designed for use only in parking lots and driveways on private property and is disabled on public roads.

The new probe covers 2016-2025 Model S and X vehicles, 2017-2025 Model 3, 2020-2025 Model Y equipped with Tesla's Full Self-Driving driver assistance system.

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