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Stay in Your Lane Act

S. 3536 · 119th Congress · Dec 17, 2025 · Lineage

A BILL

To amend title 49, United States Code, with respect to the safety of driving automation systems, and for other purposes.

Section 1 Short title

This Act may be cited as the “Stay in Your Lane Act”.

Sec. 2 Operational design domain restriction for driving systems

(a)
Safe domains for driving automation systems—
(1)
In general— Subchapter II of chapter 301 of title 49, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

“30130. Safe domains for driving automation systems

“(a) Definitions—In this section:

“(1) Administrator—The term Administrator means the Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

“(2) Driving automation system—The term driving automation system means the hardware and software that are collectively capable of simultaneously performing all of the lateral and longitudinal vehicle motor control subtasks of the dynamic driving task of a motor vehicle on a sustained basis.

“(3) Operational design domain—The term operational design domain means operating conditions, as defined by the manufacturer, under which a driving automation system, or feature thereof, is specifically designed to function safely, including—

“(A) environmental, geographical, and time-of-day restrictions; and

“(B) the requisite presence or absence of certain traffic, road users, or roadway characteristics.

“(4) Safely—The term safely, with respect to motor vehicle safety, means presenting no more than an inconsequential risk.

“(b) Operational design domain—Each manufacturer of a driving automation system shall ensure that the driving automation system does not operate outside of its operational design domain.

“(c) Declarations

“(1) In general—Each manufacturer of a driving automation system shall—

“(A) define the operational design domain as the conditions under which the driving automation system, or feature thereof, is designed to function safely; and

“(B) submit to the Administrator a declaration of that definition.

“(2) Publication—Each manufacturer of a driving automation system shall make the declaration submitted by the manufacturer under paragraph (1)(B) available on a publicly accessible website of the manufacturer, which shall be the exact declaration submitted to the Administrator under that paragraph.”

(2)
Clerical amendment— The analysis for subchapter II of chapter 301 of title 49, United States Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 30129 the following:
(b)
Civil penalties— Section 30165(a)(1) of title 49, United States Code, is amended, in the first sentence, by inserting “30130(b),” after “30127,”.
(c)
Limited definition of motor vehicle safety standard— Section 30102(b) of title 49, United States Code, is amended—
(1)
in paragraph (1)—
(A)
by redesignating subparagraphs (C) through (H) as subparagraphs (D) through (I), respectively; and
(B)
by inserting after subparagraph (B) the following:

“(C) motor vehicle safety standard includes a requirement described in subsections (b) and (c)(1) of section 30130;”

(2)
in paragraph (2), by striking “paragraph (1)(C), (D), (F), or (G) of this subsection” and inserting “subparagraph (D), (E), (G), or (H) of paragraph (1)”.
(d)
Effective date— This Act and the amendments made by this Act shall take effect on the date that is 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act.