NHTSA Vehicle Test API Python API Docs | dltHub

The NHTSA Vehicle Test API (AV TEST) provides programmatic access to public records about automated vehicle testing in the U.S. The REST API base URL is https://avtest.nhtsa.dot.gov/api and No authentication is required for accessing the NHTSA Vehicle Test API..

dlt is an open-source Python library that handles authentication, pagination, and schema evolution automatically. dlthub provides AI context files that enable code assistants to generate production-ready pipelines. Install with uv pip install "dlt[workspace]" and start loading NHTSA Vehicle Test API data in under 10 minutes.

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What data can I load from NHTSA Vehicle Test API?

Here are some of the endpoints you can load from NHTSA Vehicle Test API:

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How do I authenticate with the NHTSA Vehicle Test API API?

The NHTSA Vehicle Test API does not appear to require authentication, as endpoints are accessible without an API key and no authentication methods are documented.

1. Get your credentials

No API credentials are required to access the public endpoints of the NHTSA Vehicle Test API.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

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[sources.nhtsa_vehicle_test_api_source]
# No authentication required for NHTSA Vehicle Test API

dlt reads this automatically at runtime — never hardcode tokens in your pipeline script. For production environments, see setting up credentials with dlt for environment variable and vault-based options.

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How do I set up and run the pipeline?

Set up a virtual environment and install dlt:

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uv venv && source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install "dlt[workspace]"

1. Install the dlt AI Workbench:

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dlt ai init --agent <your-agent> # <agent>: claude | cursor | codex

This installs project rules, a secrets management skill, appropriate ignore files, and configures the dlt MCP server for your agent. Learn more →

2. Install the rest-api-pipeline toolkit:

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dlt ai toolkit rest-api-pipeline install

This loads the skills and context about dlt the agent uses to build the pipeline iteratively, efficiently, and safely. The agent uses MCP tools to inspect credentials — it never needs to read your secrets.toml directly. Learn more →

3. Start LLM-assisted coding:

Use /find-source to load data from the NHTSA Vehicle Test API API into DuckDB.

The rest-api-pipeline toolkit takes over from here — it reads relevant API documentation, presents you with options for which endpoints to load, and follows a structured workflow to scaffold, debug, and validate the pipeline step by step.

4. Run the pipeline:

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python nhtsa_vehicle_test_api_pipeline.py

If everything is configured correctly, you'll see output like this:

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Pipeline nhtsa_vehicle_test_api_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds
1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset nhtsa_vehicle_test_api_data
The duckdb destination used duckdb:/nhtsa_vehicle_test_api.duckdb location to store data
Load package 1749667187.541553 is LOADED and contains no failed jobs

Inspect your pipeline and data:

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dlt pipeline nhtsa_vehicle_test_api_pipeline show

This opens the Pipeline Dashboard where you can verify pipeline state, load metrics, schema (tables, columns, types), and query the loaded data directly.

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Python pipeline example

This example loads No specific commonly used endpoints were identified in the provided information. from the NHTSA Vehicle Test API API into DuckDB. It mirrors the endpoint and data selector configuration from the table above:

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import dlt
from dlt.sources.rest_api import RESTAPIConfig, rest_api_resources

@dlt.source
def nhtsa_vehicle_test_api_source(None=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://avtest.nhtsa.dot.gov/api",
            "auth": {
                "type": "None",
                "None": None,
            },
        },
        "resources": [
            
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="nhtsa_vehicle_test_api_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="nhtsa_vehicle_test_api_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(nhtsa_vehicle_test_api_source())
    print(load_info)

To add more endpoints, append entries from the resource table to the "resources" list using the same name, path, and data_selector pattern.

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How do I query the loaded data?

Once the pipeline runs, dlt creates one table per resource. You can query with Python or SQL.

Python (pandas DataFrame):

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("nhtsa_vehicle_test_api_pipeline").dataset()
sessions_df = data.No single representative endpoint was identified in the provided information..df()
print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

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SELECT * FROM nhtsa_vehicle_test_api_data.No single representative endpoint was identified in the provided information. LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("nhtsa_vehicle_test_api_pipeline").dataset()
data.No single representative endpoint was identified in the provided information..df().head()

See how to explore your data in marimo Notebooks and how to query your data in Python with dataset.

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What destinations can I load NHTSA Vehicle Test API data to?

dlt supports loading into any of these destinations — only the destination parameter changes:

Change the destination in dlt.pipeline(destination="snowflake") and add credentials in .dlt/secrets.toml. See the full destinations list.

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Troubleshooting

Common Error Responses

The NHTSA Vehicle Test API returns standard HTTP status codes to indicate the success or failure of a request. Common error codes include:

• 400 Bad Request: Indicates that the server could not understand the request due to invalid syntax.
• 401 Unauthorized: Indicates that the request requires user authentication. (Note: Current public endpoints do not appear to require authentication, but this code may be returned for protected resources or future API changes).
• 404 Not Found: Indicates that the server cannot find the requested resource.
• 500 Internal Server Error: Indicates that the server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it from fulfilling the request.

Pagination

While not explicitly detailed for the AV TEST API, other NHTSA APIs support pagination using skip/take or offset/limit query parameters. It is likely that the AV TEST API follows a similar pattern for handling large datasets.

Ensure that the API key is valid to avoid 401 Unauthorized errors. Also, verify endpoint paths and parameters to avoid 404 Not Found errors.

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Next steps

Continue your data engineering journey with the other toolkits of the dltHub AI Workbench:

• data-exploration — Build custom notebooks, charts, and dashboards for deeper analysis with marimo notebooks.
• dlthub-runtime — Deploy, schedule, and monitor your pipeline in production.

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dlt ai toolkit data-exploration install
dlt ai toolkit dlthub-runtime install

• How to deploy a pipeline
• How to explore your data in marimo Notebooks
• How to query your data in Python with dataset
• Join the dlt community on Slack