In July 2026, NHTSA announced an effort to better understand causes and solutions to Emergency Vehicle obstructions when AVs block the path or enter into the area where Emergency Vehicles are traveling.

This internally written specification is offered as a seed for useful and expansive behavioral definitions for automated technologies. The demanding nature of on-road competencies, particularly in emergency situations, is very high and there is little tolerance for forgiveness in these rare but inevitable moments. As these are both risky and highly-sensitive scenarios, the behaviors around emergency vehicle responses should be addressed, first.

The following test specifications do not necessarily constitute an acceptable or nominal performance requirement, let alone any sort of behavioral model for implementation. The test specifications set a basic threshold for establishing competency, that is to say, if the Ego vehicle fails this test, it does not possess the basic competency required for the scenario.

Additional supplements are available, such as behavioral math models, simulations, and fully specified test steps with acceptance tolerances by contacting Retrospect.