national highway safety administration (NHTSA)

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), headquartered in Washington, D.C ., is a U.S. civilian agency affiliated with the U.S. Department of Transportation. It is responsible for road and vehicle safety.

As part of its automated driving systems( ADS), NHTSA has developed a classification system that categorizes the level of automation into five different automation levels ranging from driving without automation assistance to autonomous driving. NHTSA's classification system largely corresponds to that of the Society of Automotive Engineers( SAE) and has defined six automation classes for automated driving systems, Automated Driving System (ADS), which are referred to as SAE levels in the SAE standard.