After reviewing and “reinterpreting” existing federal safety regulations, the Transportation Department determined the technology complies with the requirements of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard.
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Foxx also announced the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will work with states, manufacturers, the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators and others on a framework that will lead to a national policy on self-driving cars. “If you’ve got a good idea that you think doesn’t compromise safety, bring it to us”, he said.
“Our obligation is to make sure that everyone who is going to inform the discussion and decision on this really understands how our technology works”, Krafcik said.
“We are bullish on automated vehicles”, Foxx said during an appearance at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
Seventeen foreign and domestic automakers met in one room with the U.S. Department of Transportation and agreed to begin sharing information to keep drivers safe.
“Perhaps years from now we will look back at this moment as a moment when, at a time when there may have been some skepticism about the safety of the automotive industry in general, the industry stepped up and made a hard pivot with us towards a more proactive culture”, he said. Foxx has been meeting with the leaders of major USA auto companies since October in an effort to demonstrate the administration’s frustration with the widespread safety defects in US cars.
The program will focus on better vehicle cybersecurity, early warning data to spot trends and use the aviation industry as a potential model for cooperation in the aftermath of a major government crackdown on auto safety failures.
“This coming together of the global automotive industry with DOT and NHTSA to determine how we can make vehicles that are safer than ever before and even safer in the future -this is unprecedented”, he said. “If the technology meets its promise, my back-of-the-envelope math tells me that more than 25,000 lives would have been saved in 2015 alone”, Foxx told reporters. Lessons learned from air crash investigations have been incorporated into new generations of airliners.
But safety advocates wondered if the agency is getting too cozy with the auto industry when it comes to technology regulations.
Foxx said Friday the agreement that was reached by the Obama administration and most of the nation’s largest vehicle companies will change the regulatory relationship between the federal government and the auto industry.
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“The old way of doing business doesn’t work”, he said.
