AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY
At NHTSA, we are charged with promoting vehicle and driver behavioral safety, to save lives, prevent injuries, and reduce the economic costs of vehicle crashes. We help lead a team of more than 500 mission-driven professionals who are committed to significantly reducing the almost 40,000 fatalities on our nation’s roads every year. That’s about 110 every single day. We have to reduce that number and are committed to that mission.
Both the vehicle safety and behavioral safety verticals of our mission are increasingly technology-driven in pursuing the goal of reduced crashes.
On the vehicle safety side, our FMVSS and NCAP standards – the 5-star safety ratings protocol beloved by car buyers -- are grounded in enabling OEMs to provide innovative best-in-class safety equipment to the public while maintaining affordable vehicles. Our teams are constantly researching advanced vehicle technologies such as automatic emergency braking, lane departure warnings, and automated driving systems.
On the behavioral safety side, we’re proud to partner with law enforcement, state highway safety offices, safety and victims organizations, OEMs, AV developers, and many others in the shared quest to reduce crashes, fatalities and serious injuries. Many of the best countermeasures for the behaviors that cause the overwhelming majority of serious crashes are technology. For example: rapid oral fluid testing for impaired driving; safety camera technology that can detect excessive speeding, distracted driving, and failure to wear seat belts; and in-vehicle technology to monitor driver engagement. A significant and growing portion of the almost $1 billion in grants to state and local safety efforts that we administer is being directed to these and other safety technologies.
AV Framework
Because of NHTSA’s primacy in vehicle safety regulation, we have a leading role in facilitating the safe development, testing, and deployment of automated vehicles. After four years of hesitation and inaction by the previous administration, we have been directed by the President and the Secretary to expeditiously establish a lasting federal regulatory framework for AVs. We are excited to embrace this initiative.
The new framework will unleash American ingenuity, maintain key safety standards, and move us closer to a single national standard that spurs innovation and prioritizes safety.
It is based on three core principles:
- First, prioritize the safety of ongoing AV operations on public roads.
- Second, enable the commercial deployment of AVs to enhance safety and mobility for the American public. To be clear, this includes the commercial deployment of PB AVs without traditional controls such as steering wheels or brake pedals.
- Third, unleash innovation by removing unnecessary regulatory barriers.
To these ends we have, to date, dramatically expanded and streamlined the process for AV developers to obtain exemptions for purposes of either R&D or commercial deployment. We recently issued NHTSA’s first exemption for American-built vehicles under the R&D purposes, granting an exemption for Zoox’s driverless vehicles. And we anticipate being able to soon share news about activity on the commercial exemption side. We’re excited to have an expert team of AV specialists who are going to expeditiously support AV developers in the safe and innovative deployments of AVs.
And there is much more to come in this administration. We are committed to modernizing the FMVSSs to support safe AV deployment. And we are committed to a regulatory program that supports American companies like Waymo, Zoox, and Nuro and their partners like Lyft and Uber in ensuring U.S. leadership in AV development and deployment.
Connected Vehicles
We know there is great interest in connected vehicles, and we are eager to see many of you and your companies harness connectivity to improve efficiency and safety in ways that drive commercial demand. Today, nearly all new vehicles come equipped with a level of wireless connectivity, enabling real-time data exchange with cloud services, infrastructure, and other vehicles.
More and more recalls are now being remedied through over-the-air software updates. We continue to believe that interoperable connectivity provides an added layer of digital information that can benefit both drivers and infrastructure operators. This includes vehicle to everything, or V2X.
The Office of the Secretary is currently leading the Department’s work in this space, with NHTSA collaborating and supporting. I want to recognize the Department’s leadership, including their work to drive interagency coordination. Among many other things, they’re working closely with the Federal Communications Commission, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and industry stakeholders to establish regulatory certainty regarding spectrum use. They’re moving us toward widespread deployment by supporting more than 50 public agencies across most states with targeted grants to launch meaningful V2X pilots. And they are leveraging insights from these pilots to quantify safety and mobility benefits, creating proven models for future adoption.
Connectivity also offers exciting possibilities for improving safety, including post-crash care. Today and for the foreseeable future, we need first responders ready to treat crash victims and increase survivability. Nationally, 43 percent of people killed in crashes between 2019 and 2023 were initially alive when emergency medical services arrived on the scene.
Our Office of Emergency Medical Services and National 911 Program are leading efforts to bring together key stakeholders to enhance crash response effectiveness. A central focus is improving how telematics systems are leveraged to notify 911 centers and first responders following a crash. Many manufacturers already equip their vehicles with telematics like crash notifications and live hazard alerts, which can improve response time and reduce crash risk.
NHTSA is actively exploring how these systems can be further leveraged to reduce response times and improve EMS outcomes. In fact, NHTSA’s 911 Coordinator, Brian Tegtmeyer, spoke more about our work in this area during a panel yesterday, and I hope many of you had the opportunity to attend.
Leverage Data to Help States
To support the states and localities to which we distribute almost $1 billion in grant funding annually, we’re using technology to identify and target opportunities for reducing crashes. For the first time, we are conducting deep dives using advanced data analytics and visualization technologies to produce comprehensive, customized analyses of each state’s highway safety challenges. This approach is made possible through specialized data science and analytics expertise within NHTSA. Our data scientists can integrate and interpret complex datasets to deliver targeted state-specific insights that were previously unattainable. We are developing an AI-driven state program portal to provide each state with curated information. To save more lives, we need to identify and address trends in real time.
Mobile Telematics
I also want to note the promise of mobile telematics. Today, several million drivers provide telematics information to companies who collect and aggregate that information. The drivers receive a 10-ish percent discount on their insurance bills. This information can show in real time what’s happening on our roads and provide a new source of data on behaviors that are difficult to accurately capture in conventional mechanisms, such as distraction. In some areas, for example, the data can show that drivers are swerving or hard braking in specific areas in a way that stands out, or where excessive speed is most concentrated. This data can allow NHTSA and its partners in state highway safety offices and law enforcement, as well as our USDOT partner, the Federal Highway Administration, to take action with enforcement, education, road construction, and other steps to address problem areas before major crashes occur.
AI in Rulemaking
In addition to using AI in data analytics and for developing customized countermeasure programs for our state partners, we also are going to be using it internally to add efficiency to the comment review process during our rulemaking actions. NHTSA has many of the most impactful and complex rulemakings within DOT, often resulting in thousands or even tens of thousands of comments.
We are developing an AI tool that will help expedite the front-end review process, while still preserving the essential role of agency experts in evaluating the substance of the input we receive and making all significant rulemaking decisions. Other agencies across the Department, including the Secretary’s office, are interested in using this tool for their own rulemakings, as well as other applications.
CAFE and EVs
Finally, one of our current areas of intense rulemaking activity involves resetting the fuel economy standards for passenger vehicles. Both as a matter of law and policy, the fuel economy standards administered by NHTSA should NOT be used to force the electrification of the U.S. vehicle fleet. That certainly isn’t what Congress intended when it gave NHTSA standard-setting authority in the 1970s. And by a 2:1 margin, Americans do not want EV mandates.
This Administration is committed to enabling American car buyers, not the federal government, to decide what proportion of the vehicle fleet will be electrified. To be clear: We have nothing against EVs and are committed to allowing them to compete for buyers’ purchase dollars – on an even playing field. Our priority is enabling buyers to purchase more affordable and safer vehicles that they want, not that the government is telling them they must buy.
NHTSA embraces the potential that technology has to help save lives, improve mobility, and power our economy. The President and Secretary are right that a golden age of American transportation is just around the corner. We are excited about our role in delivering that golden age, both in our internal work and in collaboration with the many constituencies with whom we partner.
Thank you very much.