Autonomous vehicles — including robotaxis, commercial trucks and other variations — have been rapidly emerging on American roads. For years, federal regulators have sought to ensure these vehicles operate safely without hindering innovation. Recent months have seen an acceleration of those efforts
Both during the last administration and in the opening months of the new one, the federal auto regulator, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), has made numerous policy announcements on autonomous vehicles. Some of them have come with much fanfare, including statements from the Secretary of Transportation, typically touting1 American innovation and the need to beat China. Ultimately, these announcements illustrate the current administration’s desire to be seen as promoting the development of autonomous technology. As a practical policy matter, the effects of these recent policy changes — at least the ones that have been announced so far — are likely to be incremental rather than revolutionary.
Authorizations and exemptions
At the federal level, there is an easy way and a hard way2 to get an autonomous vehicle on the road in the USA.
The easy (or easier way): a company can take a mass-produced vehicle off the assembly line, certify it as compliant with all Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, and retrofit it with the equipment necessary to enable the vehicle to drive itself. Once it does that, the vehicle is legal to put on the road. It does not have to meet any additional safety standards that specifically apply to autonomous operations; no federal rules require an autonomous vehicle to pass a driving test. To be sure, state and local governments can — and in some places do — place additional restrictions on autonomous operations. But federal regulation is very limited — so long as the vehicle has all the safety equipment required on human-driven vehicles.
As for the hard(er) way, if an autonomous vehicle company wants to think a bit outside the box and design a vehicle that does more to take advantage of the lack of a driver, then there may be additional regulatory obligations. If the company designs a vehicle that does not comply with all Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards — to take a simple example, it lacks a manual brake pedal, which is normally required — then it must request a regulatory exemption before it can operate the vehicle on public roads. Some of NHTSA’s recent policy moves have targeted the exemption process. NHTSA has specifically announced3 it will aim to speed up the exemption process for commercially operated vehicles, and also expand4 the availability of another type of exemption for testing vehicles to include domestically produced vehicles rather than just imported ones.
New rulemakings
In addition, many of the existing Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards are decades old and were drafted with the then-reasonable assumption that a human would always be behind the wheel. That assumption raises the question of how to apply some of the standards to vehicles that not only lack a driver, but also may lack such features as a designated driver’s seat and steering wheel.
To address this issue, NHTSA recently announced5 it will propose modifying some of its safety standards to account for driverless vehicles. For example, one of the targeted standards requires vehicles to include windshield wipers — perhaps less of a necessity when there is no driver who needs to see the road in the rain. This announcement follows a previous rulemaking6 that NHTSA completed in 2022, which made similar changes to some of its safety standards.
These rulemakings are not game-changers; they will not fundamentally alter the regulatory treatment of self-driving vehicles at the federal level or create substantive new standards for autonomous operations. Rather, the changes they make, though significant, will amount to tweaks to existing standards to accommodate the emerging reality of vehicles without human drivers.
Another NHTSA rulemaking on autonomous vehicles may point toward a more comprehensive future regulation. Shortly before the end of the previous administration, NHTSA published7 a proposed rule that would establish the ADS-equipped Vehicle Safety, Testing and Evaluation Program (AV STEP). AV STEP would be a voluntary program in which autonomous vehicle operators could apply to participate. Participating companies would provide NHTSA with extensive data about their operations, as well as a safety case that is validated by an independent third-party expert. In addition to public recognition of their acceptance to the program, AV STEP participants would also be eligible for a special regulatory exemption process. The AV STEP rulemaking is still pending, and the current NHTSA leadership has yet to indicate whether it will finalize the proposed rule.
Enforcement and crash reporting
In addition to regulating safety, NHTSA has also been active on the enforcement front when it comes to autonomous vehicles. First issued in 2021, NHTSA’s Standing General Order (SGO) 2021-01 requires8 autonomous vehicle manufacturers and operators to report crashes involving their vehicles. The SGO has been amended several times and allegedly inadequate reporting under the order has led to high-profile enforcement settlements9 and investigations. Despite speculation10 that the new administration would repeal the SGO, it maintained it with some minor changes. And NHTSA also announced11 that it plans to propose issuing the SGO’s reporting requirements as a formal regulation in coming months.
Future federal regulation
Even as federal regulators address autonomous operations in various ways, dozens of state and local governments have taken a variety of approaches. For example, although California is home to more robotaxis than anywhere else12, the state has has proposed a comprehensive testing and permitting process for autonomous vehicles13. Other states have taken a more laissez-faire approach14 — essentially saying that any vehicle that is legal to operate under federal standards will face no barrier at the state level. This patchwork of local standards has led to calls for a federal nationwide framework for autonomous vehicle regulation. Whether and when such a framework happens, possibly in the form of legislation, is still very much up in the air.
References
5 https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/av-framework-plan-modernize-safety-standards
8 https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/2025-04/third-amended-SGO-2021-01_2025.pdf
9 https://www.nhtsa.gov/?nhtsaId=AQ25002
11 https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaViewRule?pubId=202504&RIN=2127-AM63
12 https://www.thedriverlessdigest.com/p/latest-waymo-california-data-dump