The changing political landscape could reshape automated driving development and deployment. By Megan Lampinen
The regulatory and legislative landscape in the US is about to undergo a shift under the Trump Administration. The new president’s pro-business, America-first policies are already dismantling the electric vehicle (EV) supports put in place under Joe Biden, but what do they mean for autonomous vehicles (AVs)?
Fits and starts
“The US Department of Transportation (DoT) has been involved in AV policy in fits and starts over last nine years,” says Hilary Cain, Senior Vice President of Policy at the Alliance for Automotive Innovation. Speaking at a recent Partners for Automated Vehicles Education (PAVE) panel, she noted that the last Trump Administration did “quite a lot of work around automated vehicle policy,” and that could resume. Under the first Trump Administration, the US Department of Transportation published the Automated Vehicles Comprehensive Plan, laid out fundamental AV principles in the Automated Vehicles 4.0 roadmap, and expanded the Automated Vehicle Transparency and Engagement for Safe Testing (AV TEST) Initiative from a pilot to a full programme.
When Biden was in office, the pace of federal policy slowed. Towards the end of his term, the government introduced a ban on the sale of connected and autonomous vehicle technology developed by Chinese and Russian companies in the name of national security. In terms of software, this ban takes effect in model year 2027, with an associated hardware ban to follow in model year 2030. As S&P Mobility recently pointed out, the ban “support the America first and national security issues which Trump has said are a priority for his administration,” and the stance is expected to remain under his administration.
In December 2024, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) denied an exemption petition from autonomous truck developers Waymo and Aurora, submitted two years before. Current regulations require a driver to put out warning devices whenever a commercial vehicle is stopped on the shoulder of a highway, posing an obvious problem for a driverless truck. The trucking companies had asked instead for permission to use ‘Cab-Mounted Warning Beacons’ when the vehicle is operating in Level 4 mode, but the FMCSA turned them down.
In terms of industry impact, noted Finch Fulton, Advisor at K&L Gates, “This denial was massive. It upset many people. If they were going to deny the petition, why wait two years?” This ruling has since been challenged in court and will likely fall to the new administration to handle. “This will set the field for all AVs in some way or another,” Fulton added.
On 15 January 2025, just five days before Trump’s inauguration, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would establish a new framework for reviewing and overseeing vehicles equipped with automated driving systems (ADS). This initiative—the ADS-equipped Vehicle Safety, Transparency, and Evaluation Program (AV STEP)—is essentially a voluntary self-assessment safety programme.
There has also been activity over the past few years on the state level. As Cain pointed out: “The states have been seeking to fill what they perceive as a void in terms of federal regulatory action.” This takes different forms, with several states implementing permitting programmes for AV testing and deployment approval. Others have put operational requirements in place for AV operation. “We have also recently seen an uptick in data reporting requirements from the states,” she added.
Crash reporting
According to Reuters, the Trump transition team wants to see more liberalised regulations on AVs in general, with a recommendation to enact “basic regulations” that would foster AV development. Among the more specific recommendations from the transition team are that NHTSA end the standing general order on AV crash reporting, which requires automakers to report crashes if SAE Level 2 driving systems are enabled within 30 seconds of the incident.
Elon Musk has also been a vocal opponent of this requirement. An analysis of crash data by Reuters showed that Tesla’s Autopilot system accounted for 40 out of the 45 total crashes reported to NHTSA between January and October 2024. In an October 2024 Tesla earnings call, Musk said he would use his position within the Department of Government Efficiency to push for AV regulatory changes. He also criticised the patchwork of state AV requirements as “incredibly painful” to navigate and voiced the desire for “a federal approval process for AVs.”
Clarity
PAVE believes that 2025 could be a pivotal year for AVs, and Clare echoed this. “We are at a very critical time for the AV industry in the US. For too long, the industry has been seeking regulatory clarity. At the state level, there is a patchwork of laws, with states trying to outdo each other with who is the most aggressive towards the technology. That is not helping the overall health and competitiveness of the US AV industry. We are at a critical juncture for the states to figure out how to link arms with the federal government. Let’s figure out how to do this in an organised, comprehensive, and aligned way so innovators innovate and the technology can benefit consumers across the US.”
In her view, an update of the federal motor vehicle safety standard (FMVSS) is required to pave the way for AVs. The problem is that the current regulations were built around the idea of human-driven vehicles, and anything that runs autonomously requires an exemption to operate on the roadway. “Until the existing FMVSS is updated, the only pathway to a non-conventionally designed AV is through an exemption process,” she noted. “It was onerous and capped at 2,500 vehicles for two years.” There was originally some thinking that this could serve as a bridge until a more fundamental revamp. “Ultimately we need to see the FMVSS updated—that’s the holy grail,” she states.
As for Congress passing any type of AV Bill, Clare steered clear of committing but did note that there was a lot NHTSA could do without Congress. That includes clarifying federal and state roles and enacting a FMVSS specific to AVs.
“If I could write a new AV Bill, it would cover simple things,” said Fulton. “I want to see NHTSA finish an AV safety framework rulemaking and use that as a platform to build up future rulemaking. FMCSA would finish a rulemaking for autonomous trucks and it will have considerations for exemption petitions. I also want to see the language in AV 3.0 formalised where it says you don’t need to put in human controls if there will never be a human driver. Just these few narrow things would provide certainty. We have seen lots of funding bills and language that indicate strong support for industry, but just those bits of clarity would make a difference.”
The motoring public
While AV developers may be gearing up for greater freedoms, safety advocates have voiced concern about the direction in which the industry could be headed. “The regulatory environment for AVs in the US has always been quite favourable to the industry and is based on a non-regulatory voluntary guidance approach in place of regulatory mandates,” observed Sean Kane, Founder and President of Safety Research & Strategies, Inc. He noted that “the only real mandates” are related to the automated driving crash reporting mentioned above, first specified in NHTSA’s 2021 Standing General Order.
“Until this current Administration, it was hard to image how the industry could get a more favourable environment,” he told Automotive World. “But now, with Musk co-presiding with Trump, one doesn’t need to invoke much imagination. US DOT Inspectors General have been fired, and NHTSA’s already small staff is being cut. With Musk’s disdain for even the most minimal automated driving crash reporting requirements and his penchant for thumbing his nose at well-established safety guidelines and those who support them, it doesn’t bode well for the motoring public.”
