NHTSA shares autonomous driving system research, rulemaking update

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has released updated information on its autonomous driving system (ADS) rulemaking and research process, focusing on updates made since the last report in July 2025.

In its third biannual report to Congress, released this month, NHTSA says legislators have stressed the modernization of the administration’s rules so the U.S. can safely deploy ADS and “not cede leadership to global competitors,” including China. The reports are in response to the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023.

The reports specifically cover agency activities related to ADS consistent with SAE International’s driving automation Levels 3-5

“In support of the AV framework that Secretary Sean Duffy announced in April 2024, as discussed in the prior report, Administrator Morrison identified key agency priorities,” the report states. “Central to this effort is prioritizing the safety of ongoing AV operations, unleashing innovation by leveling the playing field for U.S. ADS developers, and enabling commercial deployment of AVs to enhance safety and mobility for the American public.

“Administrator Morrison also underscored that the mobility and safety benefits of AVs can be achieved only through public trust, which must be grounded in demonstrable safety. He further stressed that the technical and policy challenges posed by these innovations must be addressed decisively, as neglecting them would lead to products unacceptable to both consumers and the agency.”

NHTSA’s ongoing research activities include:

• • “Human factors research topics, approaches to verification and validation of ADS simulation models, validation of augmented reality testing implementation, artificial intelligence training and validation methods, refinement of a ground truth trip recorder, preventive maintenance techniques for ADS vehicle safety, and ADS crashworthiness.
  • “Braking and electronic stability control test procedures, technical translations, and unconventional seating challenges across several standards.
  • “ADS simulation, closed-course testing, and on-road evaluations.
  • “Operational boundaries and safety needs of different ADS applications.
  • NHTSA is developing new methods to evaluate how ADS detect and respond to their surroundings, including using augmented reality to blend virtual and physical objects in performance testing.
  • “Characterizing subsystem performance, identifying failure modes, and exploring methods to evaluate and mitigate risks associated with ADS-equipped vehicles.”

NHTSA says it’s also exploring how ADS vehicle reliability-centered maintenance concepts can help reduce or prevent in-use failures, and finalizing its introductory research into artificial intelligence (AI) techniques used in ADS and advanced driver assistance system technologies.

As for ADS-equipped vehicle crashworthiness, NHTSA says it’s looking into how evolving design elements impact occupant protection, including how to adapt safety systems to accommodate new seating configurations.

The report states that NHTSA continues to evaluate best practices for safe interaction of non-occupied ADS-equipped vehicles with existing vehicles, roadside hardware, pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists.

In April 2025, NHTSA announced it would implement a new AV regulation framework to maintain key safety standards and prevent a patchwork of state laws and regulations based on three principles:

• • Prioritize the safety of ongoing AV operations on public roads;
  • Unleash innovation by removing unnecessary regulatory barriers; and
  • Enable commercial deployment of AVs to enhance safety and mobility for the American public.

This would include modernizing Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) to ensure safe commercial AV deployment while improving safety and mobility, NHTSA said at the time.

In February, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation heard from Tesla, Waymo, and the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association during a hearing on self-driving vehicle technology and its effect on consumer privacy and safety to surmise how a federal legislative framework could benefit all of the above.

Discussion and questioning of the witnesses centered on the potential for AVs to reduce the country’s traffic-related deaths and how the implementation of federal legislation could standardize collision liability, whether a person should be in the driver’s seat of AVs (the “human factor,” as Republican Wyoming Sen. Cynthia Lummis called it), and how personally identifiable information is collected, shared, and stored.

NHTSA was also criticized for its reportedly decades-old regulations.

Consumer Reports recently provided feedback on how NHTSA could use a proposed United Nations Global Technical Regulation (GTR) on ADS.

The feedback was provided in comments Consumer Reports submitted to NHTSA per its request for input.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Working Party on Automated/Autonomous and Connected Vehicles (GRVA) adopted the GTR during a meeting in January. UNECE says the proposal establishes uniform safety provisions and a harmonized methodology for validating vehicles equipped with ADS, anchored in a safety case approach and robust research and development processes.

On March 19, Rivian and Uber announced a partnership to accelerate both companies’ AV plans, expecting to deploy 10,000 fully autonomous R2 robotaxis in the first phase of R2 robotaxi deployment, according to a press release.

Initial deployments are expected to begin in San Francisco and Miami in 2028, expanding to 25 cities by the end of 2031 in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

Uber will invest up to $1.25 billion in Rivian through 2031, subject to meeting certain autonomous milestones by specific dates, building toward a scaled, fully autonomous fleet of Rivian R2 robotaxis, the release states.

An initial $300 million investment has been committed, subject to regulatory approval.

The companies also have the option to negotiate the purchase of up to 40,000 more autonomous R2 vehicles beginning in 2030.

Rivian CEO and founder RJ Scaringe said the partnership will help accelerate the company’s path to Level 4 autonomy “to create one of the safest and most convenient autonomous platforms in the world.”

“The scale of Rivian’s growing data flywheel, coupled with RAP1, our state-of-the-art in-house inference platform, and our multi-modal perception platform, makes us incredibly excited for the rapid advancement of Rivian autonomy over the next couple of years,” he said in the release.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi added that the company is a big believer in Rivian’s approach to vehicle design and its compute platform and software stack together, while maintaining end-to-end control of scaled manufacturing and supply in the U.S.

“That vertical integration, combined with data from their growing consumer vehicle base and experience managing the complexities of commercial fleets, gives us conviction to set these ambitious but achievable targets,” he said in the release.

In December 2025, Rivian announced its third-generation autonomy platform, which the company expects to be one of the most powerful combinations of sensors and inference compute in a consumer vehicle in North America when launched in its R2 later this year.

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