In anticipation of the arrival of self-driving vehicles, U.S. lawmakers are considering rewriting the Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.

First adopted in 1967, the federal standards set minimum safety-performance requirements for everything from windshield wipers and seat belts to tire-pressure monitoring systems and motorcycle helmets. But the many updates made over the years have been based on one key assumption: that a human being would be operating the vehicle.

“That’s about to change,” Ryan Beene explains in a Bloomberg article. “U.S. regulators could soon undertake one of the biggest overhauls of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards ever, one that would apply to cars that drive themselves.”

To ensure that the laws keep pace with the technology, the automakers and tech giants are urging federal lawmakers to begin adapting the laws to autonomous vehicles – as soon as possible.

For more, read “Driverless Cars of the Future Confront Rules Written for Drivers.”