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National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)

Federal Agency

Appears in 5 stories

Stories

American traffic deaths fall to lowest level since 2019, reversing pandemic-era spike

New Capabilities

Primary agency tracking and regulating vehicle safety

An estimated 36,640 people died on American roads in 2025—the fewest since 2019 and a 6.7 percent drop from the year before. The death rate fell to 1.10 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, the second-lowest figure in more than a century of federal recordkeeping, even as Americans drove roughly 30 billion more miles than they did in 2024.

Updated May 31

Tesla Robotaxi safety under scrutiny

New Capabilities

Three concurrent FSD investigations; visibility probe at pre-recall Engineering Analysis stage

By April 2026, Tesla had expanded its unsupervised robotaxi service to Dallas and Houston, bringing the combined Texas fleet to about 573 vehicles. Newly unredacted crash reports tell a messier story: two of the 17 Austin incidents involved remote teleoperators who drove vehicles into a fence and a construction barricade.

Updated May 23

Insurance industry begins pricing software-driven risk

New Capabilities

Granted Tesla extension to February 23, 2026 for FSD investigation response

For a century, auto insurers priced risk based on the driver: age, driving record, location. Lemonade's January 2026 partnership with Tesla is the first major attempt to price risk based on which entity—human or software—is actually controlling the vehicle. Tesla owners using Full Self-Driving get a 50% rate reduction on miles driven with the system engaged, a discount five times larger than Tesla's own insurance offers. The product launched in Arizona on January 26, 2026.

Updated May 22

Trump EPA moves to stall and unravel Biden’s auto pollution rules

Rule Changes

Proposing weaker fuel‑economy standards that align with EPA’s softer emissions approach

The EPA isn't killing Biden's vehicle pollution rules outright. It plans to keep looser 2026 standards in place for two extra model years instead of enforcing tougher limits on smog-forming pollution starting in 2027.

Updated May 11

Trump’s 2025 fuel economy reset reignites the U.S. auto emissions battle

Rule Changes

Issuing revised CAFE standards for 2022–2031

On December 3, 2025, President Trump unveiled an NHTSA proposal to slash Biden-era CAFE standards, cutting the 2031 target from about 50.4 mpg to roughly 34.5 mpg. The rule also slows annual increases to 0.25–0.5% from 2% and bans credit trading after 2028, which especially hurts EV-focused companies that sell credits to gasoline-heavy manufacturers.

Updated May 10