The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has rigorously evaluated its major programs as a matter of policy since 1970. The evaluation of the effectiveness of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) began in 1975. The Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 and Executive Order 12866, "Regulatory Planning and Review," issued in October 1993, now oblige all Federal agencies to evaluate their existing programs and regulations.
Most of NHTSA's crashworthiness and several crash avoidance standards have been evaluated at least once since 1975. NHTSA has also evaluated a number of consumer-oriented regulations, such as bumpers, theft protection, fuel economy and the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP), as well as some promising safety technologies that were not mandatory under Federal regulations, such as antilock brake systems.
