AV STEP (ADS Vehicle Safety, Transparency, and Evaluation Program)

Current understanding

AV STEP was a proposed NHTSA voluntary program to provide federal oversight, safety review, and public transparency for on-road operation of vehicles equipped with Automated Driving Systems (ADS). NHTSA has withdrawn the notice of proposed rulemaking, signaling a shift away from this voluntary transparency framework toward other ADS oversight initiatives. Status: NPRM withdrawn; no successor program specified in the withdrawal notice.

Evidence log

• 2026-06-26 — ADS-Equipped Vehicle Safety, Transparency, and Evaluation Program; Withdrawal: cross-connection with ads-vehicle-safety-standards: Both are NHTSA workstreams on ADS-equipped vehicles; with AV STEP withdrawn, FMVSS modernization becomes the primary near-term federal ADS regulatory vehicle. (novelty: 3)

Open questions

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