One thing that the US federal government could do to spur innovation is offer exempt categories (low volume) for vehicles that don't meet all safety or all emis

One thing that the US federal government could do to spur innovation is offer exempt categories (low volume) for vehicles that don't meet all safety or all emissions requirements. It's obvious that we don't want millions of people driving their children around in dirty, unsafe cars, but there was a lower testing / R&D burden for small companies (consider companies like http://www.arielmotor.co.uk/ http://www.arielmotor.co.uk/ in the UK), there would be a lot more opportunities for the fresh design the US industry needs, along with the manufacturing to support it. If the manufacturing industry that would support low volumes was built, it would be possible for the larger automakers to leverage those lines for JIT production of vehicles people want -- one of the big things Toyota has over the US domestics. Unfortunately I think this solution sits in the land of car-fan fairy tale -- the left wouldn't want it because it would relax eco concerns, and the right wouldn't want it because it would possibly restrict how much the larger automakers could take advantage of (low volumes, again).