Biography

The following section is from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on 3 September 2023.

Ann Carlson, NHTSA's Acting Administrator, oversees the nation’s vehicle safety agency that sets vehicle safety standards, identifies safety defects and manages recalls, administers hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to State Highway Safety Offices, and educates Americans to help them drive, ride, and walk safely. NHTSA’s work also includes establishing fuel economy regulations and helping facilitate the testing and deployment of advanced vehicle technologies. Carlson previously served as NHTSA’s Chief Counsel, where she played a critical role in advancing the agency’s safety mission. She oversaw an unprecedented action to issue a Standing General Order requiring timely reporting of critical safety data related to vehicles equipped with automated driving systems and advanced driver assistance systems; initiated formal rulemaking to require automatic emergency braking and pedestrian automatic emergency braking in light- and heavy-duty vehicles; and helped secure a historic 50% increase in funding and staffing resources for the agency under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Carlson also oversaw the issuance of the most stringent year-over-year increases in light-duty fuel economy standards since NHTSA began setting standards, as directed by President Biden’s Executive Order 13990.

Before joining NHTSA, Carlson served on the faculty at the UCLA School of Law, as the Shirley Shapiro Professor of Environmental Law and the faculty co-director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. She also served as the California Assembly’s representative to the Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee and won three teaching awards, including the highest honor awarded by UCLA.

Carlson graduated magna cum laude from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Harvard Law School, and has co-authored a leading environmental casebook, co-edited a book Lessons from the Clean Air Act, and written numerous environmental law publications.

Article Index

Date	Article	Details
30 September 2021	Agency Information Collection Activities; Notice and Request for Comment; Incident Reporting for Automated Driving Systems (ADS) and Level 2 Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) The currently approved information collection request for which NHTSA intends to request an extension requires certain manufacturers of motor vehicles and equipment and operators of motor vehicles to submit incident reports for certain crashes involving Automated Driving Systems and Level 2 Advanced Driver Assistance Systems.	Federal Register Notice (text) Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Byline: Ann E. Carlson
29 December 2021	Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Incident Reporting for Automated Driving Systems (ADS) and Level 2 Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) NHTSA recently requested emergency review of its request for approval of this information collection and received a six-month approval.	Federal Register Notice (text) Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Byline: Ann E. Carlson
4 May 2022	Agency Information Collection Activities; Notice and Request for Comment; Confidential Business Information To facilitate the evaluation process, in their requests for confidential treatment, submitters of information may make reference to certain limited classes of information specified in Appendix B that are presumptively treated as confidential, such as blueprints and engineering drawings, future specific model plans, and future vehicle production or sales figures for specific models.	Federal Register Notice (text) Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Byline: Ann E. Carlson
29 June 2022	Agency Information Collection Activities; Notice and Request for Comment; Information Collection Request: Criminal Penalty Safe Harbor Provision Section 5 of the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability, and Documentation Act notes that 18 U.S.C. 1001 provides for criminal liability in circumstances where a person had the intention of misleading the Secretary of Transportation regarding safety-related defects in motor vehicles or motor vehicle equipment that caused death or serious bodily injury.	Federal Register Notice (text) Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Byline: Ann E. Carlson
6 February 2023	Uniform Procedures for State Highway Safety Grant Programs We face a crisis on our roadways. NHTSA projects that an estimated 42,915 people died in motor vehicle crashes in 2021.	Federal Register Notice ( PDF) Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Byline: Ann Carlson
14 April 2023	Implementing the Whistleblower Provisions of the Vehicle Safety Act Whistleblowers are an important source of information on motor vehicle safety, as Congress recognized in enacting the Motor Vehicle Safety Whistleblower Act.	Federal Register Notice ( PDF) Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Byline: Ann Carlson
17 August 2023	Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards for Passenger Cars and Light Trucks for Model Years 2027–2032 and Fuel Efficiency Standards for Heavy-Duty Pickup Trucks and Vans for Model Years 2030–2035 NHTSA is also setting forth proposed augural standards for MY 2032 passenger cars and light trucks, that would increase at 2 percent and 4 percent year over year, respectively, as compared to the prior year’s standards.	Federal Register Notice ( PDF) Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Byline: Ann Carlson
25 August 2023	Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards for Passenger Cars and Light Trucks for Model Years 2027-2032 and Fuel Efficiency Standards for Heavy-Duty Pickup Trucks and Vans for Model Years 2030-2035; Correction Prior to publication of the proposal for new CAFE standards for passenger cars and light trucks and new fuel efficiency standards for HDPUVs, NHTSA noticed several minor typographical errors that could not be corrected prior to printing.	Federal Register Notice (text) Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Byline: Ann Carlson
25 August 2023	Public Hearing for Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards for Passenger Cars and Light Trucks for Model Years 2027-2032 and Fuel Efficiency Standards for Heavy-Duty Pickup Trucks and Vans for Model Years 2030-2035 This hearing also allows the public to provide oral comments regarding the Draft Environmental Impact Statement that accompanies the proposal.	Federal Register Notice (text) Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Byline: Ann Carlson