Congress mandates public safety data for autonomous vehicles

What it does

This bill requires autonomous vehicle (AV) and advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) manufacturers and operators to report detailed safety data to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) within 90 days of enactment, including monthly reports on miles traveled, collisions involving injuries, and unplanned stoppages. The data must be made publicly available in machine-readable format within 120 days, allowing citizens and researchers to scrutinize AV safety performance; NHTSA cannot weaken these reporting requirements for at least 10 years.

Why we flagged it

The bill's core function is to impose mandatory incident reporting and public disclosure of AV/ADAS safety data. It is a regulatory transparency measure, not a subsidy, carve-out, or deregulation—it increases corporate reporting burden in service of public accountability.

What the text implies

• Manufacturers may face competitive pressure if safety data reveals performance gaps; this could accelerate safety improvements or consolidation in the AV sector.
• Public availability of granular incident data (location, time, vehicle ID, software version) may enable pattern analysis that identifies systemic safety issues manufacturers would prefer to keep private.
• The 10-year lock-in on reporting requirements prevents regulatory rollback even if industry lobbies for weaker standards, creating a durable transparency baseline.
• Level 2 ADAS data collection is limited to periods when the system is engaged or 30 seconds before failure, potentially underreporting edge cases or driver-system interaction failures.

Who it affects

Ordinary citizens gain transparency into autonomous vehicle safety performance and incident data, enabling informed public debate, regulatory oversight, and accountability for a rapidly deployed technology. The public disclosure requirement shifts power from manufacturers (who control safety data) to citizens and regulators, reducing information asymmetry.

Named in the bill

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Autonomous vehicle manufacturers, ADAS system operators, Third Amended Standing General Order 2021-01, Title 23 USC Section 148 (vulnerable road user definition)

Where it stands

• Jul 14, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
• Jul 14, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $3,540,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 135 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.

More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.

Kevin Mullin, the sponsor, reported $505,911 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• American Property Casualty Insurance Association — $3,540,000 on 2 filings

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 22, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.