The moves are a boon for makers of self-driving cars and the wider vehicle technology industry, which has complained that federal crash-reporting requirements are overly burdensome and redundant. (This may nix, for example, federal public reporting on some minor fender-benders in which a Waymo is struck by another car. But companies will still have to report incidents in California, which has more stringent regulations around self-driving.) “This does seem to close the door on a huge number of additional reports,” says William Wallace, who directs safety advocacy for Consumer Reports. The new DOT framework will also allow automakers to test self-driving technology with more vehicles that don’t meet all federal safety standards under a new exemption process.