NHTSA lifts the manufacture-date limit on temporary FMVSS exemptions — and takes applications online

US federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSS) are the technical requirements new vehicles sold in the United States must meet. There is a narrow escape hatch: under 49 U.S.C. 30113, the Secretary of Transportation — acting through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) — can grant a temporary exemption from an FMVSS or the bumper standard when the statutory conditions are met. The procedures live in 49 CFR part 555, a regulation NHTSA established in 1973.

On July 31, 2026, NHTSA published an interim final rule (Docket No. NHTSA-2026-1585, RIN 2127-AM57) that rewrites parts of part 555. It took effect the day it was published, and the rule set a comment deadline of August 31, 2026, with a final rule to follow after the comment period closes. The deadline has since moved: on August 31, 2026, the agency published an interim final rule extending the comment period, so readers should check the docket for the current deadline.

What changed in part 555

The core change concerns which vehicles an exemption actually covers. The old § 555.7(f) said that unless a grant notice specified a later date, a temporary exemption was effective upon Federal Register publication and exempted vehicles manufactured on and after that effective date. The revised rule separates the two ideas: § 555.7(f) now deals only with the effective date, while a new § 555.7(g) leaves the covered vehicle population to the Administrator unless otherwise determined.

NHTSA framed the amendment as aligning the regulation with the Administrator's statutory discretion over the vehicle population an exemption covers. The rule also modernizes paperwork: the three-copy requirement is removed, and applications must now be submitted electronically to the Administrator at GeneralExemptions@dot.gov.

The four statutory findings an applicant must satisfy

An exemption is not granted on request. NHTSA must find that the exemption is consistent with the public interest and with the objectives of the Safety Act, and make at least one of four focused findings:

• Compliance would cause substantial economic hardship to a manufacturer that tried to comply in good faith.
• The exemption would ease the development or field evaluation of a new safety feature providing a safety level at least equal to the standard's.
• The exemption would ease development or field evaluation of a low-emission vehicle without unreasonably lowering that vehicle's safety level.
• Compliance would prevent the manufacturer from selling a vehicle with an overall safety level at least equal to that of nonexempt vehicles.

How the route has been used: Zoox and GM

The part 555 route has been used by makers of highly automated vehicles whose designs cannot meet standards written around manual controls. In March 2026, NHTSA published notice that Zoox had applied for a temporary exemption from portions of eight FMVSS applicable to its robotaxi, a passenger car equipped with an automated driving system — seeking, for example, exemption from portions of FMVSS No. 103, Windshield defrosting and defogging systems — and requesting a two-year exemption for not more than 2,500 vehicles per 12-month period, on the 555.6(d) basis. The docket shows a 07/31/2026 notice of grant of the application, the same day the part 555 amendment published.

The precedent is older. In March 2019, NHTSA published receipt of General Motors' petition for a temporary exemption from part of each of 16 FMVSS for its driverless Zero-Emission Autonomous Vehicle, which would have had no steering wheel, manual gear selection, or foot pedals, citing the new-safety-feature and low-emission-vehicle findings. That petition predates the 2026 amendment, but it shows the same statutory machinery in use.

Why the manufacture-date change matters

Under the previous § 555.7(f) language, an exemption reaching back to vehicles built before the grant's effective date was not the default; a grant notice had to specify a later date, and the exemption otherwise applied only to vehicles manufactured on and after it. The revised text keeps a default — vehicles manufactured on or after the effective date — but expressly subjects it to determination by the Administrator, so the covered population is no longer fixed by the regulation's own wording. NHTSA has not, in this rule, announced how it will exercise that discretion in future grant notices; the terms of any given exemption will appear in the grant notice itself.

How to check it yourself

The interim final rule is published in the Federal Register with docket number NHTSA-2026-1585 and the regulation text of revised 49 CFR part 555; the docket holds the rule, the extension of the comment period published on August 31, 2026, comments received, and any subsequent final rule. Grant notices for specific exemptions — including the Zoox grant of July 31, 2026 — are published in the Federal Register and carry their own terms, so read the individual grant notice to see which vehicles an exemption covers, and check the docket for the current comment deadline.