critical of Tesla. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg defended Cummings' appointment, and the NHTSA said that it was "look[ing] forward to leveraging her experience and leadership in safety and autonomous technologies." National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy surmised the Tesla advocates' responses to be a "calculated attempt to distract from the real safety issues". In January 2022, Cummings was required by NHTSA to recuse herself from any matters related to Tesla. Focus and views Cummings's research interests include human supervisory control, artificial intelligence, human-autonomous system collaboration and human-robot interaction, human-systems engineering, and the socio-ethical impact of technology. Cummings has written on the brittleness of machine learning and future applications for drones. In addition, she has spoken critically of the safety of Tesla's Full Self-Driving Capability surrounding its reliance on computer vision. References External links Hargrave Pioneers profile Missy Cumming's profile on EngineerGirl.org MIT Profile Factually episode on autonomous driving featuring Cummings 1960s births Year of birth uncertain Living people United States Naval Academy alumni Female United States Navy officers United States Naval Aviators American women aviators Naval Postgraduate School alumni University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni Women systems engineers American women engineers Virginia Tech faculty MIT School of Engineering faculty Duke University faculty American women academics 21st-century American women