On Thursday, the United States Department of Transportation unveiled a new National Strategy for Automated Vehicles, which essentially lays out the agency’s plans to handle self-driving cars and trucks through the year 2030. That said, there's a key distinction between a strategy and a rulebook—and this new strategy is, for now, more of a very general path rather than a specific route to widespread autonomous vehicle adoption. DOT says it wants “the first safety standards for automated vehicle competency,” along with simpler regulations, more commercial deployments, and “interoperable corridors” that allow self-driving vehicles to work more seamlessly across state lines. That all sounds fairly substantial, because it is. The agency’s central argument is sensible enough: federal vehicle-safety rules were largely written around the assumption that there would be a person in the driver’s seat. That creates awkward questions when a robotaxi has no steering wheel, pedals, mirrors, or any other place for someone to take over. For now, the DOT says AVs need to comply with existing federal motor vehicle safety standards, unless they get an exemption. It also acknowledges that some of those rules no longer make much sense for vehicles that are designed never to be driven by a human. A windshield-wiper requirement is useful on a conventional car; on a purpose-built autonomous shuttle without a windshield, it's a pointless obstacle. The new strategy points to ongoing efforts to modernize rules covering everything from transmission controls and brake systems to lamps, tires, rear visibility, electronic stability control, and occupant protection. NHTSA has already granted Zoox an exemption from eight safety standards for its purpose-built robotaxi, and other companies are attempting to use the same pathway. The big promise—minimum federal performance standards for the automated-driving system itself—is not nearly as far along. NHTSA says it is developing an advance