Ann Carlson, the current acting leader of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), is set to depart from the agency. Her last official day with the NHSTA is expected to be Dec. 26, according to various industry reports.
President Joe Biden initially nominated Carlson in February to head the NHTSA, succeeding Steven Cliff. However, in May, Biden withdrew the nomination when Carlson faced challenges in obtaining Senate confirmation. Reuters has reported that in response to the open leadership position, Sophie Shulman, NHTSA’s Deputy Administrator, will assume the role of the agency’s acting leader.
Carlson has been serving as the acting administrator since September 2022 and previously held the position of NHTSA’s chief counsel. Before leading the agency, she taught environmental law at the UCLA School of Law and established the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA.
During her tenure, Carlson has faced criticism from Republicans for her support of regulations advocating for electric vehicles. Additionally, she has overseen NHTSA’s involvement in contentious rulemaking within the trucking industry, including proposals related to side underride guards and automatic emergency brakes.
In April, NHTSA issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking exploring the requirement of side underride guards on trailers, a move supported by safety groups but questioned by opponents citing cost-benefit considerations. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), representing small-business truckers, deemed a mandatory underride guard mandate as “premature and shortsighted.”
In July, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and NHTSA jointly proposed a rule mandating Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) systems and electronic stability control systems on new vehicles weighing over 10,000 pounds. During a recent House subcommittee hearing, Carlson faced inquiries from Congress members about issues with AEB technology, with Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, referencing a Land Line Magazine story detailing a truck driver’s experience with false AEB activation leading to a near-crash.
“(The article) talks about one of the truck drivers,” Nehls told Carlson during the House Highways and Transit subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, Dec. 13. “It was either a shadow or the guardrail that caused her to lose control, and this thing scared the hell out of her … This can be very, very dangerous … You need to read this when it talks about these brakes and how dangerous it’s going to be.”
NHTSA is expected to release a final rule on automatic emergency braking systems in April 2024.
Source: Land Line
