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Nevada DMV: autonomous vehicles self-certify for testing; $5 million insurance or bond required

Joint Interim Standing Committee on Revenue · February 12, 2026

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Summary

The Nevada DMV told the revenue committee that manufacturers and developers self-certify AV testing and operations, must provide $5 million in insurance, bond, or cash deposit for testing certificates, and that the DMV does not currently track vehicles by automation level without legislative direction.

Sean Severe and Thomas Martin of the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles briefed the committee on the state's autonomous-vehicle (AV) framework and the DMV's current responsibilities.

Severe said Nevada law allows all levels of autonomous operation on public streets and that the DMV does not issue permits based on an automation level. For testing, entities submit an AV testing registry packet and the DMV issues a certificate of compliance, red test license plates and vehicle registration once bond/insurance and other requirements are met. Entities must provide either a $5,000,000 certificate of insurance, a $5,000,000 surety bond or a $5,000,000 cash deposit to the DMV as a condition of testing certificates. Crash reporting rules require AV licensees to submit incident reports when crashes cause personal injury or more than $750 in damage and to provide SR-1 reports if law enforcement does not investigate.

The DMV representatives said they do not currently track the number of vehicles by automation level (levels 0 through 4 in industry parlance); that is a function the committee could require by statute. The committee also questioned the $100 testing-fee level; DMV said the $100 testing certificate fee has been in place since 2013 and is low compared with other states, and that raising it or adding more oversight would likely require legislative change. DMV staff noted they do not currently perform technical audits of manufacturers' underlying autonomy data systems; crash investigations are conducted by law enforcement, and companies are expected to report incidents and recall information to regulators when necessary.

The DMV said it has launched an NVX traffic safety working group to study safety aspects and strengthen processes and will provide updates to the committee as the group completes work.