NHTSA Tells Self-Driving Industry: Emergency Scenes Are Not "Edge Cases"

NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison warned autonomous vehicle companies on July 8, 2026, to stop interfering with first responders. "Emergency scenes are not rare or extreme 'edge cases,'" Morrison wrote, pushing back on industry framing of real-world hazards as statistically uncommon. The letter landed one day after Zoox recalled its 105-vehicle robotaxi fleet over a smoke-scene failure.