NHTSA And Motor Vehicle Safety - 2022 Developments

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA or the Agency), the nation's primary regulator of vehicle safety, will likely be increasingly active in 2022 as the Biden Administration's enforcement philosophy and priorities have come into finer focus over the past year. NHTSA has been leveraging regular, voluntary meetings with manufacturers both to learn more about emerging technologies and identify potential field issues involving the manufacturer's products in advance of a determination by the Agency to open a formal investigation. In addition to a broader flexing of its enforcement powers, NHTSA also has been aggressively using its information-gathering tools to inform its priorities. Notably, the Agency listed a full slate of rulemakings in the current (Fall 2021) U.S. Department of Transportation's Unified Regulatory Agenda. This full regulatory agenda will only be further expanded by several legislative mandates contained in the recently