ADS-Equipped Vehicle Safety, Transparency, and Evaluation Program; Withdrawal
Key claim: NHTSA is withdrawing its proposed AV STEP rulemaking that would have created a voluntary safety and transparency program for automated driving system-equipped vehicles.
Abstract
(Proposed Rule · Transportation Department, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) This action withdraws the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) published in the Federal Register on January 15, 2025, which proposed to establish the Automated Driving System-Equipped Vehicle Safety, Transparency, and Evaluation Program (AV STEP). The proposal would have created a voluntary program for vehicle manufacturers, developers of Automated Driving Systems (ADS), and fleet operators or system integrators of such vehicles. Based on its reevaluation of the proposal, consideration of the comments received, and subsequent progress on other ADS initiatives, NHTSA is withdrawing the rulemaking.
Why this matters
The AV STEP withdrawal removes a proposed federal channel for voluntary safety data sharing and public transparency around ADS-equipped vehicle deployments, leaving ADS governance more reliant on FMVSS updates, state programs, and NHTSA’s existing standing general order. For developers and platforms, this reduces near-term compliance overhead but also removes a potential path to federally recognized operational legitimacy; for users, it delays a standardized public-facing view into ADS safety performance.