AVSC asked NHTSA to base its ADS guidance on SAE standards, three of them unfinished
A comment letter posted to a NHTSA docket on October 2 mapped the consortium's best practices onto the agency's planned guidance topics, and asked it to treat remote assistance and remote driving as distinct functions.
The Automated Vehicle Safety Consortium, a program of SAE’s Industry Technologies Consortia, filed a comment letter into a NHTSA docket on potential topics for voluntary safety guidance for automated driving systems. The letter was dated September 30 and was posted to docket NHTSA-2026-1520 on October 2.
The consortium recommended that the agency refer to its published best practices “as a foundation for future guidance,” and said NHTSA should consult existing SAE On-Road Automated Driving standards. It named J3016 on taxonomy and definitions, which it said was developed through SAE’s ORAD committee and ISO TC204/WG14, and asked the agency to adopt that taxonomy.
Three of the documents it cited are not yet SAE standards. The letter said the consortium’s work on first-responder interaction was being developed into J0911, its safety management system practice for testing into J3320, and its practice on assessing safety-case claims into J3377, and in each case recommended consulting the standard once it is published.
On remote operation, the consortium asked NHTSA to use the term remote assistance rather than tele-guidance. It said that if remote driving were included in the topic, the agency should recognize remote assistance and remote driving as distinct functions with different roles, capabilities and risk profiles, and therefore not subject to a single undifferentiated set of expectations.
On safety cases, it asked the agency to focus on whether claims are supported by relevant, sufficient and traceable evidence, without prescribing a single structure or organizational method for a safety case. The letter was signed by executive director Darcyne Foldenauer and addressed to the administrator.