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Recalls Next: Technological Innovations and Safety Recalls

This notice announces a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) public meeting, Recalls Next: Technological Innovations and Safety Recalls. The event will provi...

PDF version FederalRegister.gov

Department of Transportation

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

[Docket No. NHTSA-2026-2014]

AGENCY:

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).

ACTION:

Notice of public meeting.

SUMMARY:

This notice announces a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) public meeting, Recalls Next: Technological Innovations and Safety Recalls. The event will provide the public and industry with an opportunity to review vehicle safety recall completion trends and past recall performance, while engaging attendees in identifying opportunities to improve recall campaign performance. This in-person meeting will feature NHTSA leadership keynote addresses and industry executive panel discussions. Speakers will examine how vehicle manufacturers can reach affected owners, effectively communicate safety risks, and motivate owners to complete recall repairs. NHTSA intends to utilize stakeholder input to better inform the agency's upcoming activities. The event will not be live streamed or recorded.

DATES:

This meeting will be held on November 5, 2026. Attendees must register no later than October 29, 2026. The public docket will remain open for comments for 30 days following the public meeting, until December 5, 2026.

ADDRESSES:

The 2026 Recalls Next: Technological Innovations and Safety Recalls public meeting will be held in-person at the DOT Headquarters: 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building Atrium, Washington, DC 20590.

Registration: Attendees must register at www.nhtsa.gov/events/recalls-next-technological-innovations-safety-recalls. Please follow the registration instructions presented on the registration site.

Comments: You may submit comments about the public meeting by any of the following methods:

Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting comments.
Mail: Docket Management Facility: U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001.
Hand Delivery or Courier: 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, except Federal Holidays. To be sure someone is there to help you, please call 202-366-9826 before coming.
Fax: 202-366-1767.

Instructions: All submissions must include the agency name and docket number. Note that all comments received will be posted without change to www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided. Please see the Privacy Act discussion below.

Docket: For access to the docket go to www.regulations.gov at any time or to 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building, Ground Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal Holidays. Telephone: 202-366-9826.

Privacy Act: Anyone is able to search the electronic form of all comments received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review DOT's complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register published on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477-78), or you may visit www.regulations.gov/privacy.html.

Confidential Business Information: If you wish to submit any information under a claim of confidentiality, you should submit a redacted “public version” of your comment (including redacted versions of any additional documents or attachments) to the docket using any of the methods identified under Comments. This “public version” of your comment should contain only the portions for which no claim of confidential treatment is made and from which those portions for which confidential treatment is claimed has been redacted. See below for further instructions on how to do this.

You are also required to submit a request for confidential treatment directly to the Office of Chief Counsel. Requests for confidential treatment are governed by 49 CFR part 512. Your request must set forth the information specified in Part 512. This includes the materials for which confidentiality is being requested (as explained in more detail below); supporting information, pursuant to § 512.8; and a certificate, pursuant to § 512.4(b) and part 512, Appendix A.

You are required to submit to the Office of the Chief Counsel one unredacted “confidential version” of the information for which you are seeking ( printed page 61289) confidential treatment. Pursuant to § 512.6, the words “ENTIRE PAGE CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS INFORMATION” or “CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS INFORMATION CONTAINED WITHIN BRACKETS” (as applicable) must appear at the top of each page containing information claimed to be confidential. In the latter situation, where not all information on the page is claimed to be confidential, identify each item of information for which confidentiality is requested within brackets: “[ ].”

You are also required to submit to the Office of the Chief Counsel one redacted “public version” of the information for which you are seeking confidential treatment. Pursuant to § 512.5(a)(2), the redacted “public version” should include redactions of any information for which you are seeking confidential treatment ( i.e., the only information that should be unredacted is information for which you are not seeking confidential treatment).

NHTSA is currently treating electronic submission as an acceptable method for submitting confidential business information to the Agency under Part 512. Please do not send a hardcopy of a request for confidential treatment to NHTSA's headquarters. The request should be sent to Dan Rabinovitz in the Office of the Chief Counsel at Daniel.Rabinovitz@dot.gov or you may contact him for a secure file transfer link.

Manufacturers or any companies that already have a Confidential Business Information (CBI) Portal account or an Enterprise Account with NHTSA should use the CBI Portal for their submission.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

If you have questions about the public meeting, please contact Jeremy Gunderson at jeremy.gunderson@dot.gov or 202-820-2565.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

In 2025, NHTSA administered nearly 900 vehicle safety recalls impacting more than 29.2M vehicles in the U.S. These figures have remained generally stable over the past 5 years. As new vehicle technologies have rapidly come to market, however, the complexity of safety recalls has increased. NHTSA and industry are addressing challenges associated with reaching owners of used vehicles no longer owned by the original purchaser, incomplete or outdated owner contact information, and disparities in recall completion among different vehicle populations. At the same time, manufacturers are increasingly using digital communications, connected-vehicle technologies, mobile repair, over-the-air (OTA) software updates, and other approaches that can reduce the time and burden associated with obtaining recall remedies. Further, automated vehicles are increasingly coming online, spurring new conversations in the safety recall process. These developments also present opportunities to improve how safety risks are communicated to consumers, to identify and prioritize vehicles with unrepaired recalls, and to understand better which outreach and remedy strategies are most effective.

NHTSA intends to explore approaches to increase recall completion rates, improve communication and understanding of safety risks associated with unrepaired recalls, reduce burdens on affected vehicle owners, and use available data to identify effective recall practices. NHTSA leadership and industry stakeholders will discuss recent developments, lessons learned, emerging practices, and planned activities in the vehicle safety recall space.

The public meeting will also feature facilitated workshop tables designed to obtain stakeholder input on a range of vehicle safety recall topics. NHTSA encourages attendees to come prepared to share their experiences, identify challenges, and discuss potential improvements to recall operations, consumer outreach, remedy delivery, and Federal oversight.

Updates and additional details on the working group topics will be posted at www.nhtsa.gov/events/recalls-next-technological-innovations-safety-recalls in advance of the event, and NHTSA will notify registrants by email when new information becomes available.

NHTSA seeks public comments on the information presented, as well as input on the agency's recall safety priorities, and additional gaps or needs the public may believe NHTSA should address. Additionally, NHTSA seeks input on topics for future stakeholder meetings.

Registration is required for anyone planning to attend the public meeting. Instructions for registration as well as accessing the docket are found under the ADDRESSES heading.

Updates on this event will be available at www.nhtsa.gov/events/recalls-next-technological-innovations-safety-recalls and NHTSA recommends checking back periodically for updates or potential schedule changes.

NHTSA is committed to providing equal access to this event for all participants and accommodation requests may be sent to NHTSA.Communication@dot.gov by October 29, 2026.

Should it be necessary to cancel or reschedule the meeting due to an unforeseen circumstance, NHTSA will take all available measures to notify registered participants as soon as possible. The event will not be live streamed or recorded.

Issued in Washington, DC, under authority delegated in 49 CFR 1.95.

Jonathan Morrison,

Administrator.

[FR Doc. 2026-19712 Filed 9-25-26; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4910-59-P

Legal Citation

Federal Register Citation

Use this for formal legal and research references to the published document.

91 FR 61288

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“Recalls Next: Technological Innovations and Safety Recalls,” thefederalregister.org (September 28, 2026), https://thefederalregister.org/documents/2026-19712/recalls-next-technological-innovations-and-safety-recalls.