Sponsors (14)
The bill seeks to accelerate and standardize testing and deployment of automated driving systems—improving safety oversight, industry clarity, and mobility for some—while concentrating advantages with larger firms, imposing compliance costs, raising privacy and legal-recourse concerns, and creating real safety and job-displacement risks as experimental systems operate with paying passengers.
Drivers, passengers, pedestrians, and other road users could see fewer crashes and improved safety because the bill establishes ADS-specific safety standards, testing, mandatory reporting, and post-market monitoring.
The bill encourages ADS testing and deployment, creating jobs and commercial activity in vehicle manufacturing, software, testing, and related services across the U.S.
Seniors, people with disabilities, and residents of rural or transit-poor areas may gain meaningful new mobility and access to services as ADS-dedicated vehicles are developed and deployed.
Permitting paid passenger/freight pilots, ADS-dedicated vehicles without manual controls, and the disabling of driver-facing controls increases the risk that riders, pedestrians, and other road users will be exposed to experimental-system failures and related crashes.
Workers whose jobs involve driving (e.g., truckers, taxi and rideshare drivers) face significant displacement risk as ADS technologies scale.
Extensive testing, reporting, cybersecurity, and compliance requirements impose significant costs that will raise barriers to entry, favor large manufacturers, likely increase vehicle prices, and reduce competition from smaller firms.
Based on analysis of 10 sections of legislative text.
Creates federal ADS safety standards and definitions, mandates manufacturer testing, reporting, and allows limited DOT‑overseen commercial ADS operations.
Introduced February 5, 2026 by Robert E. Latta · Last progress February 5, 2026
Creates a federal regulatory framework for vehicles equipped with automated driving systems (ADS). It directs the Department of Transportation (through NHTSA) to adopt safety standards, definitions, testing and validation rules, data recording and post-market monitoring, labeling and human‑machine interface requirements, and to enforce compliance. The bill also expands the testing/evaluation exception to allow limited, overseen commercial operations of ADS-equipped vehicles and permits temporary disabling of driver-assist devices when an ADS is fully in control. Requires manufacturers to submit safety assessments and test results, allows DOT to inspect, certify, and order remediation, and directs the Secretary to follow SAE guidance on automation levels. It also tasks the Secretary of Commerce with reviewing implementation of a connected-vehicle supply chain security rule and briefing congressional committees on that review within a set timeframe.