What Happened?

If you share the road with self-driving vehicles, those cars could soon carry small cyan-colored lights to signal that no human is watching the road, under a federal proposal that would also strip out steering-wheel and foot-pedal requirements. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published the proposed rule on Oct. 26, according to a Legis1 review of the Federal Register notice. ​

The proposal would update the federal lighting standard, known as Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 108, in four main ways. The changes include:

  • Steering-wheel controls removed: Requirements that turn signals cancel automatically via steering-wheel rotation, and that headlamp beam switches be operable by hand or foot, would be dropped for vehicles with no manual driving controls.
  • Telltale lights revised: Dashboard turn-signal and high-beam indicators would only be required on vehicles with manual controls; fully driverless vehicles would instead need a lamp-failure warning visible to all passengers.
  • Cyan marker lamps added: Manufacturers could optionally install between four and eight steady-burning cyan lamps to tell other road users the vehicle is operating without a human monitoring the road.
  • Headlamp arrangement updated: A rule in place since 1989 requiring the lower beam to sit above the upper beam in a vertical headlamp arrangement would be removed, giving manufacturers more placement flexibility.

Why Does it Matter to Me?

NHTSA says standardizing the cyan marker lamps will reduce the risk that manufacturers install non-standard lamps, which could cause confusion, become a nuisance, or create other negative safety outcomes.

NHTSA says it cannot estimate how many vehicles would be affected because the self-driving vehicle market is still developing, and the agency does not anticipate any added costs or safety drawbacks from any part of the proposal.

Both Sides, Now

NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison described the changes as addressing "unnecessary regulatory burdens" while establishing performance standards for the new marker lamps. The proposal is an Executive Order 14192 deregulatory measure that NHTSA says is meant to "remove unnecessary requirements and to provide design flexibility without impact on vehicle safety."

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reported that a Waymo vehicle struck a 9-year-old pedestrian crossing midblock in a Santa Monica school zone on Jan. 23. Separately, NHTSA announced in December 2025 that it would investigate whether an automated driving system (ADS) properly obeyed school-bus stop-arm laws after reports that vehicles had proceeded around buses with stop arms deployed.

What Happens Next?

The public has 30 days to comment, with submissions due Nov. 25, through the federal rulemaking portal at regulations.gov, by fax, or by mail.

If NHTSA finalizes the rule, it plans to make it effective immediately upon publication, bypassing the standard 180-day waiting period, because the changes add flexibility and require no new compliance steps from manufacturers. NHTSA tentatively concludes that, if finalized, its rule would partially preempt California's ADS marker lamp provisions wherever federal requirements differ from SAE J3134, even though California already explicitly permits ADS marker lamps under provisions in effect as of January 2026.

---

AllCiv makes it easy to stay politically informed and involved.

---

Spot something wrong? Report an issue with this article