HMM: Tesla Slams NHTSA’s Unintended-Acceleration Investigation. Every time this has come up before, it’s been because, in P.J. O’Rourke’s immortal phrase in Parliament of Whores, the silly buggers stepped on the gas instead of the brake. I assign his chapter on NHTSA in my Administrative Law class, because it’s a very useful primer on how agencies behave and why.