Congress hands AV safety rules to the Secretary—with almost no guardrails.

What it does

This bill directs the Secretary of Transportation to update federal motor vehicle safety standards within one year to remove barriers that prevent autonomous vehicles (self-driving cars with no human driver) from being certified and deployed. It requires the Secretary to address design assumptions built into existing safety rules—like the need for a steering wheel or driver seat—that don't apply to fully autonomous vehicles. The bill also requires a roadmap for deploying Level 4 and 5 autonomous vehicles at commercial scale. The primary beneficiaries are autonomous vehicle manufacturers and technology companies seeking to bring self-driving vehicles to market faster; the public interest lies in potential safety improvements and economic competitiveness, but depends entirely on how the Secretary implements these regulatory changes.

Why we flagged it

The bill's operative mechanism is not a specific safety standard or mandate—it is a delegation of standard-setting authority to the Secretary with broad discretion to exempt, amend, or reinterpret existing safety rules. The framing emphasizes innovation and competitiveness, but the actual effect is to shift power from Congress (which sets FMVSS standards) to the executive branch (which may weaken them at will).

What the text implies

• The bill grants the Secretary discretionary authority to determine AV compliance with 'applicable regulations' without requiring the Secretary to propose new rules through notice-and-comment rulemaking, potentially bypassing public input on safety changes.
• Section 4(c) allows the Secretary to exempt AVs from FMVSS requirements 'as the Secretary determines appropriate'—a standard so broad it permits de facto deregulation without explicit statutory repeal.
• The 'roadmap' in Section 5 is advisory and non-binding; the Secretary's 'recommendations' for safety standards carry no force unless the Secretary chooses to implement them, creating a one-way ratchet toward deregulation.
• The bill does not require the Secretary to demonstrate that amended or exempted safety standards maintain equivalent protection; it only requires a report on steps taken, not outcomes or safety validation.
• Manufacturers gain immediate relief from design constraints (steering wheels, driver seats, window placement) before any new safety framework is tested or validated in real-world deployment.

Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.

Who it affects

The bill creates genuine public benefits—autonomous vehicles may improve safety and mobility—but places enormous discretionary power in the Secretary's hands to rewrite safety standards with minimal procedural guardrails. Citizens gain faster AV deployment only if the Secretary's regulatory choices maintain or improve safety; citizens lose if the Secretary prioritizes speed over protection. The bill's language ('as the Secretary determines appropriate,' 'at the discretion of the Secretary') give

Who stands to gain

• autonomous vehicle manufacturers (Tesla, Waymo, Cruise, Aurora, etc.)
• automotive suppliers specializing in AV components
• technology companies developing automated driving systems
• ride-hailing and logistics companies planning AV fleets

Named in the bill

Secretary of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), SAE International, John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS), Level 4 and Level 5 automated driving systems

Where it stands

• May 15, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
• May 15, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation”

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 $1,005,758 in lobbying spend. A filing names 133 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.

Cynthia Lummis, the sponsor, reported $550,692 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies — $1,005,758 on 2 filings

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.