New Vehicle Technologies
General Motors Announces Increased Investment in Electric Vehicles
ASA Driven By Policy Newsletter: February 2026 General Motors (GM) announced plans this week to invest $27 billion on electric and autonomous vehicles through 2025, $7 billion more than the amount they promised before the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, GM will launch 30 electric vehicle models by 2025 around the world, with over two thirds available…
Read MoreNew Lobby Group Sets Goal of All Electric Vehicle Sales by 2030
ASA Driven By Policy Newsletter: February 2026 This week, the Zero Emission Transportation Association (ZETA) announced their organizational goal of 100 percent electric vehicle sales by the end of the decade. ZETA is a coalition of 28 businesses across the United States, including utility groups like Pacific Gas and Electric, automobile industry stakeholders such as…
Read MoreU.S. Senate Appropriations Committee Includes NHTSA Stakeholder Telematics Language
ASA Driven By Policy Newsletter: February 2026 The Transportation, Housing and Urban Development subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee has released their bill for the FY 2021 budget. This bill allocates $25.6 billion for the Department of Transportation in discretionary budget authority. In the following explanatory document for this bill, the committee provides report…
Read MoreMassachusetts Passes Right to Repair Ballot Initiative
ASA Driven By Policy Newsletter: February 2026 Last night, Massachusetts voters overwhelmingly passed Question 1 “Right to Repair” ballot initiative, 75 percent to 25 percent. This proposal expands upon the previously passed Right to Repair initiative. expanding the scope to include telematics information. This was a hotly contested initiative, and both sides spent millions…
Read MoreCalifornia Governor Calls for Ban on Gas-Fueled Cars by 2035
ASA Driven By Policy Newsletter: February 2026 California Governor Gavin Newsom released an executive order yesterday requiring that by 2035, all new cars and passenger trucks sold in California will be zero-emission vehicles. In his press release, Newsom cited increased concern about the effects of pollution and climate change caused by gas-fueled vehicles. Although…
Read MoreHouse Republican E/C Committee Members Introduce AV Legislation Bill Fails to Address Vehicle Data Access
ASA Driven By Policy Newsletter: February 2026 U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee Republican Members introduced, today, Autonomous Vehicle legislation which addresses numerous Automaker concerns relative to research and deployment of autonomous vehicles. The legislation is similar to legislation previously considered by the Committee. Unfortunately, the bill does not address vehicle data access which is…
Read MoreU.S. DOT Launches AV Test Initiative
U.S. DOT Launches AV Test Initiative Last week the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) held a series of webinars to launch the start of the Automated Vehicle Transparency and Engagement for Safe Testing Initiative (AV Test Initiative). NHTSA Deputy Administrator James C. Owens stated that this is the first…
Read MoreIIHS Study Finds AVs Might Not Prevent All Crashes
ASA Driven By Policy Newsletter: February 2026 A new study released by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) found that autonomous vehicles (AVs) would struggle to eliminate most crashes. Per IIHS, “Conventional thinking has it that self-driving vehicles could one day make crashes a thing of the past. The reality is not that simple.…
Read MoreNHTSA Examines FMVSS Options for Autonomous Vehicles
ASA Driven By Policy Newsletter: February 2026 Today, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released a report highlighting options to work around 12 Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) that pose as barriers to deploying autonomous vehicles. Per Politico, “The report examined FMVSS regarding occupant protection, door locks, head restraints, transmission shifting and…
Read MoreNHTSA Announces NPRM for ADAS
ASA Driven By Policy Newsletter: February 2026 The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced a notice of proposed rule making (NPRM) to “clarify the ambiguities in applying current crashworthiness standards to Automated Driving Systems (ADS) equipped vehicles without traditional manual controls, while maintaining the regulatory text’s application to more traditional vehicles and vehicles equipped…
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