The highly anticipated Federal Automated Vehicles Policy (AV Policy), released yesterday, provides manufacturers direction on developing safer autonomous cars. In addition, NHTSA has presented a model guide for states on their role in the regulation of autonomous technologies and discusses the current regulatory tools that it may utilize in the autonomous vehicle framework as well as new tools the agency might seek to adopt in the future.

Unlike in prior autonomous policy documents, the current AV Policy utilizes the most recent SAE levels of autonomy. It distinguishes between highly automated vehicles (vehicles meeting levels 3-5 of SAE’s definitions for levels of automation, referred to as HAVs) and less automated vehicles (SAE levels 0-2).