The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has quietly opened an important window for the trucking and freight technology community by asking stakeholders to weigh in on its multi-year research effort examining how the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) apply to vehicles equipped with Automated Driving Systems (ADS)—including vehicles that look nothing like the trucks the FMVSS were written for decades ago. That invitation matters. Because what’s at stake isn’t whether safety standards exist but whether they help or hinder the deployment of demonstrably safer technology.

Across four major research volumes, NHTSA’s own technical work reaches a consistent conclusion: most FMVSS safety objectives can be met, or exceeded, by an ADS-only vehicle. Indeed, the biggest barriers are not safety shortcomings, but human-centric assumptions embedded in regulatory text and test procedures.

These assumptions break down quickly when applied to cab-less, driverless, or no-occupant freight vehicles. When regulatory definitions become too prescriptive, they unintentionally force new technology into old boxes, even when doing so adds no safety value. This slows progress as an already slow government seeks to rewrite its rules with each new development.

This all points to a false choice lurking in some regulatory conversations: that we must pick between moving fast and being safe. NHTSA’s research undermines that idea. Automated freight platforms are designed specifically to improve safety by eliminating human error (the largest source of crash risk), enforcing consistent braking and stability, and preventing loss of control, among other things.

Delaying deployment because compliance tests assume a brake pedal or steering wheel (or a driver to turn the wheel or press the brake) doesn’t make roads safer—it keeps older, higher-risk equipment in service longer.

The bottom line is that if the goal is safer freight movement, then the regulatory system should help proven safety technologies reach the field faster, not slower. That means modernizing how the FMVSS are applied, avoiding overly rigid vehicle definitions, and focusing on what actually reduces risk. This comment period is a chance to say, clearly and constructively: Safety and speed can, and should, advance together. Comments are due February 13, 2026. Click here to comment.