The Trump administration announced on Thursday that it plans to accelerate the deployment of self-driving vehicles by exempting some from certain safety requirements and easing rules around the reporting of safety incidents.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the new framework would help U.S. automakers compete with Chinese rivals in the growing autonomous vehicle (AV) market.
This move comes amid Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s ongoing efforts to launch commercial robotaxi services, despite scrutiny from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) over the company’s Full-Self Driving software following a fatal crash. The revised regulations will allow some autonomous vehicles that don’t meet federal safety standards—such as having rearview mirrors—to operate on U.S. roads.
Additionally, carmakers will now be able to report less severe crashes on a monthly basis and will face a property damage reporting threshold for minor incidents involving self-driving vehicles.
“This administration understands that we’re in a race with China to out-innovate, and the stakes couldn’t be higher,” Duffy said. “Our new framework will slash red tape.”
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will also expand its Automated Vehicle Exemption Program to allow domestically produced self-driving cars to be exempt from safety standards. Currently, only non-compliant, imported vehicles can be operated under the program.
This regulatory shift is seen as a response to the industry’s long-standing request to deploy autonomous vehicles that don’t comply with human-driver safety standards, such as the requirement for rearview mirrors and brake pedals.
While the move has received praise from the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group representing major automakers, safety advocates have expressed concerns. The Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety criticized the Department of Transportation for weakening reporting requirements and raised alarm over safety exemptions, warning that inadequate regulations could jeopardize the safe deployment of autonomous vehicles.
Automakers have long sought to deploy automated vehicles on U.S. roads without meeting all federal safety standards. In 2022, General Motors (GM) petitioned NHTSA to allow up to 2,500 self-driving vehicles to operate annually without essential human controls like brake pedals or mirrors.
However, GM withdrew the petition last year after a prolonged government review. The company also suspended funding for its self-driving Cruise robotaxi business following a 2023 incident in which one of its robotaxis caused serious injury to a pedestrian.
Meanwhile, Alphabet’s Waymo has raised $5.6 billion in funding to expand its autonomous ride-hailing service and aims to launch a fully autonomous ride-hailing service in Washington, D.C., next year.
