If he knew about it then why would he have even started the project? It's obvious that regulators would be involved in a project like this. I don't see how he didn't anticipate this from the start.
You are literally agreeing with everyone accusing him of being ignorant though. You think you're defending him, but this is what everyone is saying. The fact that dealing with NHTSA or what that entails is "hindsight" to him is what makes him almost mind-bogglingly ignorant here. I would think a precocious 12-year-old would have been able to predict that, or at least would have the smarts to, say, at least ask somebody ahead of time (like a lawyer) what legal hurdles his business (that has life-and-death consequences, and that he sought funding for) might have to deal with in the future. His own explanation for what happened makes him sound way worse than if he hadn't explained it at all.
