The On-Ramp: An Autonomous, Connected, and Electric Mobility Newsletter

13 min

Welcome to The On-Ramp, the newsletter published by Venable's Autonomous and Connected Mobility Team. The On-Ramp explores legal and policy developments in the world of autonomous and connected vehicles, smart infrastructure, electrification, and other emerging automotive and mobility technologies, from Capitol Hill to the U.S. Department of Transportation and beyond.

2024 Election and Congressional State of Play

President-elect Donald Trump will assume office in January 2025 with a unified government, and since winning in November 2024, more of the incoming administration's priorities have become clear.

Republicans will hold 220 seats in the House of Representatives and 53 seats in the Senate. As it concerns transportation policy, one of Congress's major priorities next year will be writing the Surface Transportation Reauthorization bill. Republican lawmakers have indicated that they intend to focus the bill on core highway, road, and bridge projects, with more funds directed to rural areas than in the 2021 law and rolled-back funding for EV-related grants program.

The new administration and Republican lawmakers have signaled their support for automotive industry flexibility by stating that they will prioritize rolling back vehicle fuel economy and electrification requirements, amending EV tax credits and charging infrastructure programs, and enabling expanded commercial AV deployment. The new administration has repeated its intention to implement import tariffs to strengthen domestic manufacturing, including motor vehicle manufacturing, and pursue permitting reform to accelerate the building of transportation infrastructure projects.

U.S. Department of Transportation

NHTSA Publishes Updated AEB Final Rule

On November 26, 2024, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published a response to petitions for reconsideration on the agency's final rule creating a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) on Automatic Emergency Braking Systems (AEB) for light vehicles. The final rule requires all new light vehicles to be equipped with AEB, pedestrian AEP (PAEB), and forward collision warning (FCW) systems. Following the publication of the final rule in May of 2024, NHTSA received six separate industry petitions for reconsideration seeking amendments to the final rule. In the agency's response, NHTSA detailed its decision to grant in part and deny in part those petitions and made several technical and clarifying changes to the final rule.

As part of the response, NHTSA also denied a number of petitioner requests for further amendments to the final rule, including refusing to relax the requirement that a vehicle avoid all contact with another vehicle or pedestrians in lead vehicle and PAEB testing, refusing to allow multiple test runs for the no-contact performance requirements, retaining a prohibition on including a manual control to disable an AEB system, and refusing to provide added flexibility for very-small-volume manufacturers, among other requests. The changes to the final rule will be effective on January 27, 2025.

NHTSA Releases Early Estimates of Traffic Fatalities in Priority Safety Areas During First Half of 2024, Including Pedestrian- and Speeding-Related Crashes

On November 25, 2024, NHTSA released its early estimates of traffic fatalities in key safety subcategories for the first half of 2024. The report shows an estimated 18,720 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes during the first half of 2024, a decrease of about 3.2 percent as compared with 19,330 fatalities projected to have occurred in the first half of 2023. The estimated fatality rate for the first half of 2024 is 1.17 fatalities per 100 million VMT, down from the projected rate of 1.21 fatalities per 100 million VMT in the first half of 2023. The report also found decreases in fatalities across almost all subcategories.

NHTSA Finalizes Updates to the New Car Assessment Program

On November 18, 2024, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released two final decisions updating the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP). These final decisions add four new advanced driver assistance (ADAS) technologies to those already included in NCAP, add new evaluations of a vehicle's crashworthiness pedestrian protection, and finalize a 10-year roadmap for further updates to NCAP from 2024 to 2033. These NCAP updates are intended to fulfill a requirement of the 2015 FAST Act to include crash avoidance information on vehicle window stickers, as well as an additional requirement set forth in the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that NHTSA add information on vulnerable road user safety to NCAP. The updated evaluations and testing procedures will be effective for new vehicles starting with model year 2026.

Adding Additional ADAS Technologies to NCAP

In the first final decision, NHTSA laid out those new ADAS technologies that will be added to the list of technologies already evaluated by NCAP: (1) Blind Spot Warning (BSW); (2) Blind Spot Intervention (BSI); (3) Lane Keeping Assist (LKA); and (4) Pedestrian Automatic Emergency Braking (PAEB).

To incorporate these technologies, NHTSA will make a number of updates to NCAP, including:

  • Updating existing crash-imminent braking (CIB) and dynamic brake support (DBS) evaluations, while retaining existing testing scenarios currently used in NCAP
  • Consolidating forward collision warning (FCW) tests to assess and evaluate FCW functionality during CIB and DBS testing and requiring test vehicles to issue a FCW prior to the onset of automatic braking
  • Adding assessment procedures for PAEB using six scenarios, and a requirement that no contact with the pedestrian test mannequin be made
  • Adding assessment procedures for BSW and BSI technologies, with each system tested individually
  • Adding LKA and enhancing existing Lane Departure Warning (LDW) evaluations

Updated NCAP Roadmap

As detailed in the first decision, NHTSA has also completed a final roadmap for updating NCAP in phases from 2024 through 2033, with midterm items identified for 2024-2028, and long-term items from 2024 to 2033. These updates are divided into initiatives across four primary categories—crash avoidance, crashworthiness, vulnerable road user safety, and vehicle safety rating. NHTSA intends to further update this NCAP roadmap approximately every 4 years.

Incorporating Crashworthiness Pedestrian Protection into NCAP

NHTSA's second final decision adds a crashworthiness pedestrian protection program to NCAP, modeled largely on existing assessments used by European NCAP, to evaluate new vehicles' ability to mitigate pedestrian injuries. Under the new program, rather than evaluating vehicles directly, NHTSA will instead review data provided by manufacturers on their vehicle models' performance in pedestrian impact tests. The agency will also perform verification tests on select vehicles to corroborate manufacturer data. At this time, NHTSA is not implementing a comparative rating system for crashworthiness pedestrian protection and will instead use the manufacturer-provided data to publicly identify new model year vehicles that meet a certain minimum safety threshold. This "pass-fail" assessment approach is intended to be temporary, and NHTSA intends to replace it with a more refined comparative rating approach at a future date.

The crashworthiness pedestrian protection updates to NCAP include:

  • New test procedures to evaluate the potential risk of head, upper leg, lower leg, and knee injuries to pedestrians hit by the front of a vehicle
  • Vehicle scores based on injury assessments from each impact test
  • Manufacturers will be allowed to submit simulated results for head and leg impacts, provided the manufacturer can also provide evidence of physical impact testing to verify the models used for the predicted data
NHTSA Publishes Proposed Rule on Pedestrian Head Protection

On September 9, 2024, NHTSA published a proposed rule to create a Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) that would establish test procedures simulating head-to-hood impacts and setting performance requirements to minimize the risk of head injury. The proposed rule would be applicable to passenger vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of up to 4,536 kilograms (kg) (10,000 pounds (lb.)). The standard would require vehicles to meet a head injury criterion (HIC) when subjected to testing simulating a head-to-hood impact. The vehicles would have to reduce the risk of serious to fatal head injury to child and adult pedestrians in impacts at vehicle speeds up to 40 km/h (25 mph), which encompass about 70 percent of pedestrian injuries from vehicle impacts. NHTSA states that this NPRM advances the agency's objective of adopting a motor vehicle crashworthiness safety standard to ensure that passenger vehicles are designed to mitigate the risk of serious to fatal child and adult pedestrian head injury. NHTSA is proposing that the compliance date for the new FMVSS be on the first day of September two years following the date of publication of any final rule in the Federal Register, with optional early compliance permitted. Final-stage manufacturers and alterers would be provided an additional year to comply. Comments on the proposed rule were due November 18, 2024.

NHTSA Holds Annual Safety Research Portfolio Meeting

On October 28-30, 2024, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) convened its annual Safety Research Portfolio Public Meeting. During the public meeting, the agency's Vehicle Safety Research and Behavioral Safety Research offices shared information on activities within NHTSA's research programs. The meeting is intended to provide public and stakeholder outreach regarding research activities. During the public meeting NHTSA technical research staff discussed projects recently concluded or under way and introduced some early-stage projects. Researchers presented on topics including, but not limited to, automated driving systems, advanced driver assistance systems, and electric vehicles.

Other Federal Agencies

FCC Adopts C-V2X Auto Safety Spectrum Rules

On November 21, 2024, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) unanimously adopted final rules on cellular-vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) technology. The FCC's Second Report and Order is intended to complete the process of transitioning intelligent transportation system (ITS) operations from Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC)-based technology to C-V2X-based technology and complete the transition of the 5.9 GHz frequency band from DSRC to C-V2X. The Second Report and Order also codifies technical parameters for C-V2X technologies, including considerations for band use, message priority, and channel bandwidth. These final rules follow the FCC's 2020 First Report and Order, which began the transition from DSRC to C-V2X for ITS operations and reassigned the lower 45 MHz of the 5.9 GHz band to unlicensed operations while retaining the upper 30 MHz (5.895-5.925 GHz) for ITS use of C-V2X. Important elements of the Second Report and Order include:

  • Encouraging industry to develop a consensus concerning 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) releases covering C-V2X
  • A hierarchy of C-V2X communications, with ITS communications in the 5.9 GHz band structured to prioritize safety-of-life communications first, followed by public safety communications, and finally non-priority communications
  • Dividing the upper 30 MHz of the 5.9 GHz band into three 10-MHz channel bandwidths, to provide flexibility for current and future operations
  • Setting power and antenna height limits for C-V2X roadside units (RSUs), power limits for C-V2X on-board units (OBUs) (including the ability of OBUs to operate at higher power in geofenced areas), and out-of-band emission limits for RSUs and OBUs
  • Establishing a two-year window for phasing out DSRC operations, starting from the date of the Second Report and Order's publication in the Federal Register

The order will go into effect 60 days after its publication in the Federal Register, with the two-year period for phasing out DSRC starting on the date of publication as well.

EPA Annual Automotive Trends Report

On November 25, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its 50th annual Automotive Trends Report, demonstrating that model year (MY) 2023 vehicle fuel economy improved while greenhouse gas emissions levels dropped. The report also shows that all 14 large automotive manufacturers are in compliance with EPA's light-duty GHG program requirements through the MY 2023 reporting period. Today, the new MY 2023 electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles on the road have led to 11% lower CO2 emissions. The report also found that in MY 2023, the combined category of battery-electric vehicles, PHEVs, and fuel-cell vehicles increased from 6.7% of production in MY 2022 to 11.5% of production in MY 2023 and are projected to reach 14.8% of production in model year 2024.

FAA Adopts Final Rule to Facilitate Powered-Lift

On October 22, 2024, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a final rule for the qualifications and training that instructors and pilots must have to fly aircraft in the "powered-lift" category, which have characteristics of both airplanes and helicopters. The rule also addresses the operational requirements for such vehicles, including minimum safe altitudes and required visibility. The FAA previously determined it could certify powered-lift vehicles using existing regulations and other, updated regulations so that "air taxis" could be used commercially. In 2023, the agency released a blueprint for how Urban Air Mobility vehicles will operate, which is a key element in maturing the overall advanced air mobility (AAM) concept.

FAA states that a new pilot-training and qualifications rule was needed because existing regulations did not properly address this new category of aircraft, which can take off and land vertically like a helicopter and fly like an airplane during cruise flight. The rule provides a comprehensive framework for certifying the initial cadre of powered-lift instructors and pilots.

To do so, the rule:

  • Makes changes to numerous existing regulations and establishes a Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR) with new requirements to facilitate instructor and pilot certification and training
  • Applies helicopter operating requirements to some phases of flight and adopts a performance-based approach to certain operating rules
  • Allows pilots to train in powered-lift vehicles with a single set of flight controls; legacy rules require two flight controls—one for the student and one for the instructor

Grants and Other Funding Opportunities

  • On October 24, 2024, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) announced more than $96.5 million in grants to 16 states for 20 projects under the Advanced Transportation Technology and Innovation (ATTAIN) program. The program is intended to promote advanced technologies that improve safety and reduce travel times for drivers and transit riders and can serve as national examples of innovation to improve transportation options for all communities. Projects funded under this round of grant awards include:
    • California Department of Transportation. $5.6 million for Interoperable Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) and connected vehicle infrastructure
    • Hillsborough County in Florida. $2.96 million to integrate smart traffic technology to improve safety, mobility, and connected vehicle readiness along 40 miles of arterial streets within Hillsborough County
    • City of Cedar Park in Texas. $4.42 million to address traffic congestion and enhance road user safety through the rapid deployment of advanced transportation technology—including V2X communication and artificial intelligence (AI) applications
  • On October 23, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, alongside U.S. Representative Frank Pallone, Jr., U.S. Representative Rob Menendez, and New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn LaTourette, announced the award of a $248.9 million grant from the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant program to the Clean Corridor Coalition. This grant will fund the electric vehicle charging infrastructure for commercial zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles along the Interstate 95 freight corridor. The grant will support a project to establish equipment for 24 freight truck charging sites with 450 charging ports across four states. The Clean Corridor Coalition, led by NJDEP, includes the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, the Delaware Department of Transportation, and the Maryland Departments of the Environment and Transportation.

States

In November 2024, the District of Columbia Department of Transportation (DDOT) released its second notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to implement regulations governing AV testing operations in the District. This same month, the DC council amended DC's AV law to expressly enable AV testing with a test operator in the vehicle until regulations are finalized.

The second NPRM follows the Autonomous Vehicles Testing Program Amendment Act of 2019, which amended DC's AV law to allow for testing without a human driver physically present in an AV and gave DDOT rulemaking authority to implement the law. DDOT issued its first NPRM to implement the AV law in January 2022, and DDOT has stated that this second NPRM "addresses many of the concerns raised by the AV industry on the first proposed rulemaking." Notably, although DC law authorizes testing with a remote operator, the proposed regulations would require a test driver to be physically present in all AVs. The proposed regulations would also prohibit fared testing and initially limit an AV fleet to 10 vehicles. Comments on the NPRM are due December 23.

* The authors would like to thank Autonomous & Connected Mobility Analyst Tess Brennan for her assistance writing this newsletter.