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+--- Thread: NHTSA Announces Major Automomous Vehicle Standards Changes in the US (/thread-21386.html)
NHTSA Announces Major Automomous Vehicle Standards Changes in the US - Yazata - Sep 19, 2026
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced on Thursday that they are developing a new federal safety standards specifically for autonomous robot cars in the U.S.
Instead of regulations saying a car must have particular design features, NHTSA says it wants regulations that are more focused on whether the autonomous vehicle can actually perform safely. This includes measurable driving competencies and repeatable ways of testing them.
NHTSA announced that it:
• Is launching the ASCEND consortium with SAE (the professional organization of automotive engineers) to accelerate development of autonomous vehicle performance standards
• Is updating federal safety rules to accommodate vehicles designed without human drivers or traditional controls. (Tesla recently started production of a car with no steering wheel or pedals.)
• Has already proposed changes to five major federal vehicle safety standards, with “many more coming”
• Is working on standards specifically addressing emergency responders, remote assistance and safety management systems.
• Will continue investigations, enforcement and recalls when autonomous vehicles pose unreasonable safety risks
This is very bullish for the autonomous vehicle industry. At present, regulatory approval is more of a bottleneck than actually engineering the cars to drive themselves. The challenge now is to make them street-legal in as many places as safely possible.
https://www.sae.org/articles/press-releases/2026/09/sae-itc-nhtsa-a2scend