Stuck in slow lane, NHTSA proposes new regulatory path for self-driving vehicles

She said NHTSA expects to publish a notice of proposed rulemaking on AV STEP this fall. The proposed AV STEP would not replace the exemption-request process but instead offers an alternate regulatory avenue to the road — one without the caps on the maximum allowable number of vehicles. The advent of AV STEP could be a big help to General Motors, in particular. Besides GM, a joint exemption request from Waymo and Aurora regarding self-driving trucks remains pending. "We believe that AV STEP would hasten NHTSA's progress toward establishing an effective governance structure" to assess the performance of automated-driving systems, Carlson said.