NHTSA proposes driverless lighting rules
On 23 October 2026 the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced a proposed amendment to Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 108 for vehicles with automated driving systems and no manual driving controls: it would stop requiring manual turn-signal, hazard-warning and beam-switching controls on them and would allow optional cyan marker lamps showing that the system is driving. The notice was published in the Federal Register on 26 October, with comments open until 25 November.
Why it matters
The agency is writing an exception into an existing standard for vehicles designed never to be driven by a person, and proposing a common signal of automated operation, a colour that police and other road users can learn to read. It is a proposal: the text can change, and the lamps stay optional.
What the documents say. Federal Register vol. 91, 26 October 2026, 91 FR 67243–67261, proposed rule, docket NHTSA-2026-1519, RIN 2127-AM70, "Filed 10-23-26", comments due 25 November 2026 (the press release speaks of 30 days after publication). Proposed: limit the requirements for manually operated turn-signal, hazard-warning and beam-switching controls to vehicles with manual driving controls, and narrow the telltale requirements likewise; change the test voltage for integral-beam headlamps; remove the requirements on the vertical arrangement of headlamps; and allow "cyan-colored ADS marker lamps as optional" equipment. The lamp specifications rest on SAE standard J3134 in its December 2025 revision. A vehicle with manual driving controls, with or without an ADS, must still meet every existing requirement. NHTSA says it proposes these changes separately from the negotiated rulemaking announced "earlier this month". The press release, with a political headline, sets out progress under the administration's "AV Framework" (including "the first exemption for a commercial robotaxi deployment"): the agency's own voice. What the record does not claim. This is a proposal, not a rule: nothing has been repealed. Automated systems are not excused from safety requirements, only from requirements for controls such vehicles do not have. The first page of the signed PDF on nhtsa.gov was read: Administrator Jonathan Morrison signed the notice on 22 October 2026 and submitted it for publication in the Federal Register; the rest of the PDF was not read and the text of the proposal was read in the Federal Register.