Standardized Autonomous Vehicle Evaluation and Deployment (SAVED) Framework

Autonomous vehicles are rapidly expanding on U.S. roads, but oversight has not kept pace. Today’s patchwork of federal guidance and state-by-state rules leaves uneven safety expectations, inconsistent reporting, and public trust problems. This memo proposes the Standardized Autonomous Vehicle Evaluation and Deployment (SAVED) framework: a national safety baseline with state flexibility. SAVED establishes enforceable federal performance standards for safety and cybersecurity, requires independent pre-deployment evaluation (including simulation and controlled on-road testing within the vehicle’s operating domain), and creates standardized incident reporting to a national database. It also authorizes time-limited state “sandbox zones” for tightly monitored pilots and builds in equity and accessibility expectations so benefits and risks are not concentrated in only a few communities. This policy memo was originally submitted to Dr. Cynthia Bailey's CS 121: Equity and Governance for Artificial Intelligence