I think it's far more likely that the NHTSA was caught flat-footed by Tesla's autopilot system, and didn't react in time, with fatal results. Now they're seeing a scrappy startup trying to dive into the same space where multi-billion-dollar car companies ought to fear to tread, and they've done their best to nip it in the bud before every tom dick and harry with a webcam and a graphics card starts trying to send their car on solo missions.