NHTSA Warns AV Developers Over First Responder Interference

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is demanding that autonomous vehicle developers fix a pattern of driverless cars interfering with first responders, giving companies until the end of July to present solutions. NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison issued the call to action this week in a letter to driverless automated driving system developers, citing documented cases of AVs entering active emergency scenes and failing to recognize flashing lights, flares, smoke, fire, and traffic cones. “An automated vehicle that cannot safely interact with first responders is a danger to the general public,” Morrison wrote, adding that human drivers who impede emergency responders already face fines and jail time. The agency said it will meet with driverless developers before the deadline to hear their proposed fixes and will keep exercising its enforcement authority against companies that don’t address the issue.

Highlights

• NHTSA has documented multiple instances of driverless AVs entering active emergency scenes and blocking ambulances and firefighters
• Administrator Jonathan Morrison called the failure to detect emergency conditions a “functional insufficiency,” not a minor software issue
• NHTSA will meet with driverless automated driving system (ADS) developers by the end of July to review proposed solutions
• The agency says it will continue to exercise enforcement authority against developers that don’t address the safety concerns

A “Clear Pattern” of Emergency Scene Interference

NHTSA said it has identified a clear pattern over the past several months of driverless AVs interfering with law enforcement and other first responders. The agency’s letter describes multiple documented instances of AVs driving directly into active emergency scenes, blocking the paths of ambulances and firefighters, or failing to recognize and respond to basic safety conditions like flashing lights, flares, smoke, fire, and traffic cones.

“Emergency scenes are not rare or extreme ‘edge cases,'” Morrison wrote, framing the inability to detect and respond to such conditions as “a functional insufficiency” rather than a minor glitch. He drew a direct comparison to the standard already applied to human drivers: “Every second matters when law enforcement officers, firefighters, or paramedics are answering a call because lives are on the line,” he wrote, noting that human drivers who impede these operations are subject to fines and even jail time.

NHTSA Sets a Deadline and Signals Enforcement

NHTSA is giving driverless ADS developers and operators until the end of July to focus their resources on the issue and present solutions. The agency said it will schedule meetings with developers before the deadline to hear their proposed fixes, and that it will continue to use its existing enforcement authority against companies that fail to address significant safety concerns.

“Public trust on our roads is earned, not given,” Morrison wrote, closing the letter with an offer to collaborate with developers on the issue going forward.

How the Call to Action Fits NHTSA’s Broader AV Framework

NHTSA framed the first responder issue as separate from its parallel push to reduce regulatory barriers for AV deployment. The agency pointed to recent progress under the Automated Vehicle Framework, including a newly published 2026 Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda that proposes and previews updates to several Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS):

NHTSA said that once these updates are complete, individual vehicle exemptions may no longer be necessary. The agency also cited progress on the world’s first national competency standards for AV performance, its first major federal AV safety guidance since 2017, and a streamlined Automated Vehicle Exemption Program (AVEP) now expanded to include domestic vehicles.

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