NHTSA proposed a one-year delay to its crash-avoidance rating system
A notice that would drop two physical crash tests also pushes back the consumer rating system for driver-assistance technologies, which NHTSA attributed to resource constraints.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published a notice on August 17 proposing to remove two long-standing tests from the New Car Assessment Program and to revise the program’s 10-year roadmap. Comments close on October 16 under docket NHTSA-2026-1651.
The removals are the dynamic rollover resistance test, known as the Fishhook maneuver, and side air bag out-of-position testing. NHTSA argued that dropping the rollover maneuver would let it redirect resources toward newer assessments, naming driver-assistance evaluations among them.
The roadmap changes are the larger part of the notice. NHTSA proposed shifting the roadmap to span 2026 through 2035, against the 2024 to 2033 window set in December 2024. Within that, the agency wrote that the mid-term updates include “a one-year delay in the implementation of a rating system for crash avoidance technologies,” alongside a two-year delay to updated ratings for crashworthiness, vulnerable road user safety and overall safety, and to a revised Monroney label. It attributed both to resource constraints.
Several driver-monitoring and speed items sit further out. The roadmap tables place driver monitoring for drowsy driving at 2035 for implementation, with research running 2027 to 2030. Research into driver monitoring for distraction is listed as beginning in 2026. Intelligent speed assist shows research from 2027 to 2031 and implementation in 2035.
NHTSA also noted that a rating system for crash avoidance technologies is required of it by statute, citing provisions of the FAST Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Source: Federal Register, August 17, 2026.
Source: Federal Register