Can The NHTSA Promulgate Voluntary Guidelines When It Cannot Promulgate A Safety Standard?

On February 24, 2012, the NHTSA issued its "Notice of proposed Federal guidelines"¹ for "Visual-Manual NHTSA Driver Distraction Guidelines for In-Vehicle Electronic Devices" in which it set forth design and performance standards for limiting the distraction of drivers when using on-board integrated electronic devices. The agency issued "guidelines" instead of "safety standards" because, among other things, "the test method developed by NHTSA in these NHTSA Guidelines in its current form would not meet the statutory requirements for establishing compliance with a FMVSS"² and because it currently lacks "a defensible estimate of the magnitude of [the] benefits and the corresponding costs" necessary to issue a rule.³