NHTSA Plans First Major Tire Safety Overhaul in 20 Years, Including Airless Tire Rules

• NHTSA announced on Oct. 26 that it is rewriting federal tire standards, which the agency calls the first major overhaul in more than 20 years.
• A negotiating committee of up to 18 members is set to take on tire strength, bead unseating and endurance tests, airless tires, sidewall markings and Load Range F light truck tires.
• Anyone can comment under Docket No. NHTSA-2026-1717 until Nov. 27, and the tires on your car face no new requirement today.

The Federal Tire Rulebook Is Written for Tires That Hold Air

The tires on your car meet the same federal standard they met last month, and they will keep meeting it for a long while. What the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched on Oct. 26 opens a rewrite. No new rule exists yet, and the agency has named no date for one.

The formal notice, published in the Federal Register on Oct. 27 as 91 FR 67647, sets the machinery in motion: a committee of up to 18 industry, research and safety representatives, appointed by Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy, will negotiate recommendations for updating the federal tire tests and markings. Public comments on the plan and applications for committee seats are due Nov. 27, 2026. Comments go to regulations.gov under Docket No. NHTSA-2026-1717, and seat applications go by email to [email protected].

NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison said: “As American tire technology and vehicle design continue to evolve, our regulatory framework must keep pace.” Morrison added: “By bringing key industry stakeholders and other technical safety experts to the same table, we can modernize outdated standards to boost safety and reduce costs for you and your family.” NHTSA’s announcement gives no dollar figure for those savings.

The standard at the center is Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 139, which covers new pneumatic radial tires on light vehicles rated at 10,000 pounds or less that were built after 1975. The standard defines a pneumatic tire as one that holds the gas or fluid carrying the load, and it defines a tire’s load rating as the maximum load it is rated to carry for a given inflation pressure. A tire with no air has no inflation pressure to rate against. Airless designs expose that gap, and NHTSA says it will write safety rules for them.

What the Current Tests Put a Tire Through

Three laboratory runs in FMVSS 139 show what a tire must survive today. NHTSA names endurance among the tests it wants updated; the notice does not name the high speed and low inflation runs. The endurance test presses a tire against a smooth test wheel 1.70 meters across and runs it at not less than 120 km/h, about 75 mph. The load climbs in three stages: 4 hours at 85 percent of the tire’s maximum load rating, 6 hours at 90 percent, then 24 hours at 100 percent. That is 34 hours without topping up the air.

The tire passes only if inspectors find no tread, sidewall, ply, cord, belt or bead separation, no open splices, no cracking, no broken cords and no chunking, which the standard defines as pieces of the tread or sidewall breaking away. Pressure measured 15 to 25 minutes after the run cannot fall below 95 percent of the starting pressure.

The high speed test runs for 90 minutes in three 30-minute stages at 140, 150 and 160 km/h, about 87, 93 and 99 mph, at 85 percent of the tire’s maximum load. The low inflation test follows the endurance run on the same tire. A standard-load passenger tire is deflated to 140 kPa, about 20 psi, and run 90 minutes at full load; light truck and extra load tires get higher test pressures.

Two more requirements sit in older standards that FMVSS 139 points to. The tire strength test, called the plunger energy test in the notice, lives in FMVSS No. 109 for passenger tires and No. 119 for light truck tires. The bead unseating requirement also sits in No. 109. The bead is the steel wire edge that seats the tire on the rim. Comments NHTSA gathered after an advance notice published Dec. 19, 2019 (84 FR 69698) singled out the strength, bead unseating and endurance tests as longstanding requirements to address. The agency opened the underlying rulemaking, RIN 2127-AL96, in its Spring 2018 regulatory agenda.

What Is on the Table

Airless tires lead NHTSA’s list. The notice says the committee will take up the incorporation of non-pneumatic tires, the formal term for tires that do not rely on pressurized air.

Sidewall markings come next. Tires covered by the standard must already carry the DOT symbol, the size, the maximum inflation pressure, the maximum load rating, the cord materials, the number of plies, the word tubeless or tube type and the word radial if it applies. A footnote in the notice says a separate rulemaking is planned for three of those details: the “tubeless” label, the “radial” label and the ply count. That separate action would also take up Tire and Rim Association petitions to recognize 250 and 290 kPa inflation pressures and 415 kPa for temporary spare tires.

Light truck tires get their own item. The Tire and Rim Association has petitioned NHTSA to bring Load Range F light truck tires into FMVSS 139. The standard’s test tables today list Load Range C, D and E for light truck tires and stop there. NHTSA’s announcement separately lists a review of load limit guidelines for trucks and SUVs.

The last named item comes from Goodyear. The tire maker asked NHTSA about marking and testing “Extra Load” passenger tires with a maximum inflation pressure of 350 kPa, about 51 psi. The standard defines an extra load tire as one built for higher loads and higher inflation pressure than a standard tire. The notice cites Interpretation Letter NCC-240112 of Aug. 8, 2024 on the request and points to it as evidence of ambiguities in applying the current load classifications to modern tire designs.

How the Negotiation Works and When Rules Could Arrive

A negotiated rulemaking runs under the Negotiated Rulemaking Act (5 U.S.C. 561 and following) and the Federal Advisory Committee Act. NHTSA invites the groups a rule would hit hardest to reach agreement among themselves and with the agency. If they agree, the Department issues a proposed rule that follows the agreement and opens it to public comment under normal procedures. NHTSA’s authority comes from the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act (49 U.S.C. 30101 and following) and the TREAD Act, Public Law 106-414.

The seats break down this way: four for tire makers or retailers, two for national vehicle makers, four for vehicle or equipment manufacturing associations, two for safety organizations, three for educational or research institutions or testing organizations, and three for engineering or standard-setting associations. That adds up to 18, and tire makers, retailers, vehicle makers and their trade associations hold 10 of them. Two go to safety organizations. An NHTSA representative also sits on the committee and takes full part. NHTSA wants comments on exactly this balance, and the notice tells anyone who thinks the categories leave them out to explain why in a comment or an application.

Members serve without pay for a single two-year term or until the work ends. A neutral facilitator runs the sessions, which the notice says would be open to the public and held virtually or in a hybrid format. The committee would meet about four times a year, roughly eight meetings across a full charter plus any extras, with every date published in the Federal Register in advance.

The committee’s output is a detailed term sheet. The Secretary then approves it as submitted or in modified form, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs is consulted, and NHTSA intends to publish a proposed rule soon after those steps. The charter ends when the committee delivers its recommendations or after two years, unless the Secretary renews it. The notice sets no date for the proposed rule. A second public comment round opens when that proposal appears.

What to Do Now, Before Any Rule Changes

Anyone can comment. Comments on the committee’s scope and balance go through regulations.gov under Docket No. NHTSA-2026-1717 or by mail to the Docket Management Facility at 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE in Washington. The comment form on FederalRegister.gov caps typed comments at 5,000 characters and accepts attached files, and it warns that comments are public and that personal information in them can appear on the web. Seat applications run two pages or less and need a letter of support on letterhead. The deadline for both is Nov. 27, with applications due by 5 p.m. Eastern.

Four checks protect you while the rulemaking runs: pressure, tread, age and recalls. NHTSA’s TireWise guidance says to measure the pressure of every tire, spare included, at least once a month with the tires cold, meaning the car has sat for at least three hours. The right number is on the Tire and Loading Information Label on the driver’s door edge or post, or in the owner’s manual, and the number molded into the tire is the wrong one to use. Cars from model year 2008 on carry a tire pressure monitor, but it lights up only when a tire is significantly low and NHTSA says it is not a substitute for a gauge, as a recall of 201,976 Jeep SUVs over silent tire pressure warnings showed.

NHTSA says proper inflation can save as much as 11 cents per gallon and add 4,700 miles to a tire’s life, yet only 19 percent of drivers inflate properly. The agency also counted 511 deaths in tire-related crashes in 2024.

Check tread and age too. NHTSA says to replace a tire at 2/32 of an inch of tread. Put a penny in the groove with Lincoln’s head upside down: if the top of his head shows, the tire is done. Age is harder to see. The last four digits of the DOT tire identification number give the week and year of manufacture, so 0308 means the third week of 2008, and the number can sit on only one sidewall. Some vehicle and tire makers recommend replacing tires at six to 10 years regardless of tread, and NHTSA flags low-mileage drivers and the southern Sun Belt as the higher-risk cases. A full-size spare ages too, and NHTSA says not to use it as a replacement for worn tires except in an emergency. Speed and distance limits for a compact spare are covered in this explainer on driving on a spare tire.

Finally, search for tire recalls. NHTSA runs a tire recall search and takes safety complaints on the same pages, and five recall campaigns opened in the week of Oct. 5 covered more than 346,000 vehicles, a sense of how often notices land. Your sidewall also carries the government’s Uniform Tire Quality Grading, with treadwear measured against a control tire graded 100, so a 200 should wear twice as long, and traction graded AA, A, B or C. NHTSA lists 77 percent of current tires at traction grade A and 15 percent at AA. If a tire blows out, hold the wheel with both hands, release the accelerator gradually, correct the steering as needed, and pull off only when the car has stabilized.

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