SELF DRIVE Act of 2026
Summary
What This Bill Does
The SELF DRIVE Act sets federal rules for ADS-equipped vehicles and automated driving systems. It defines ADS terms using SAE J3016 concepts, requires manufacturers to develop safety cases before selling or importing ADS products, directs DOT and NHTSA to issue a final safety-case standard by September 30, 2027, and creates ADS competencies covering operational design domains, minimal-risk conditions, vulnerable road users, emergency vehicles, traffic-law compliance, and cybersecurity plans. It preempts state laws that block ADS manufacturing or require duplicative crash reporting, creates a National Automated Vehicle Safety Data Repository by September 30, 2026, requires covered crash reports within 30 days or 10 days after manufacturer notice, requires quarterly ADS mileage reports for five years, allows state transportation regulators timely crash-data access with confidential-business-information safeguards, permits limited commercial operations during testing, and creates an exception for temporarily disabling human-driver controls when an ADS is safely performing the driving task.
Who Benefits and How
ADS manufacturers and autonomous vehicle developers benefit from a national safety-case pathway, federal preemption of conflicting state barriers, permission for limited commercial testing with passengers or freight, and relief from some human-driver control requirements for ADS-dedicated vehicles. NHTSA gains a clearer federal rulemaking structure and crash-data repository. State transportation regulators and the public benefit from covered-crash reporting, quarterly mileage data, and repository access, while vulnerable road users benefit if ADS safety cases and competencies are enforced effectively.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Manufacturers must prepare safety cases, document hardware, software, sensors, operational design domains, hazard analyses, crash responses, minimal-risk conditions, vulnerable-road-user performance, traffic-law compliance, and cybersecurity plans. NHTSA must issue major rules by 2026 and 2027, manage crash and mileage data, handle confidential business information, and report missed deadlines to Congress. States lose authority to impose conflicting ADS manufacturing bans or duplicative crash-reporting rules. Public road users bear safety risk if testing or deployment outpaces oversight.
Key Provisions
- Requires ADS manufacturers to develop safety cases before selling, importing, or introducing ADS-equipped vehicles or automated driving systems into interstate commerce.
- Directs DOT and NHTSA to issue final rules for ADS safety cases by September 30, 2027 and crash-data repository reporting by September 30, 2026.
- Requires safety cases to address hardware, software, sensors, operational design domains, hazard analysis, crash response, vulnerable road users, traffic-law compliance, and cybersecurity.
- Preempts conflicting state ADS manufacturing barriers and duplicative covered-crash reporting requirements while preserving identical state requirements.
- Allows limited commercial ADS testing and a make-inoperative exception for temporarily disabling human-driver controls when ADS safety requirements are met.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Creates a federal automated-driving-system safety framework with manufacturer safety cases, NHTSA rulemakings, crash-data reporting, federal preemption of conflicting state barriers, limited commercial testing authority, and driver-control exceptions.
Key Policy Areas
Transportation, Technology, Manufacturing
Primary Purpose
Creates a federal automated-driving-system safety framework with manufacturer safety cases, NHTSA rulemakings, crash-data reporting, federal preemption of conflicting state barriers, limited commercial testing authority, and driver-control exceptions.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- ADS manufacturers
- Autonomous vehicle developers
- NHTSA
- State transportation regulators
- Vulnerable road users
Identified Costs
- ADS manufacturers
- NHTSA
- State transportation regulators
- State governments
- Public road users
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeForwarded by Subcommittee to Full Committee by the Yeas and …
Subcommittee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held
Referred to the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade.
Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in …
Introduced in House
Mr. Latta introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Freight operators, NHTSA
Positive-direction: Freight operators
Negative-direction: NHTSA
ADS manufacturers
ADS manufacturers faces effects in multiple directions
State transportation regulators
State transportation regulators faces effects in multiple directions
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "nhtsa"
- → National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
- "secretary"
- → Secretary of Transportation
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Hardware and software capable of performing the entire dynamic driving task on a sustained basis, including Level 3, Level 4, and Level 5 systems.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology