Yet having officially endorsed the fast-evolving technology, regulators must now balance the commercial interests of companies including Tesla, Google and Uber with concerns over public safety, especially in light of recent crashes involving semi-autonomous cars.
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“Instead, this automated-vehicle policy envisions greater transparency as [the Department of Transport] works with manufacturers to ensure that safety is appropriately addressed on the front end of development”.
The policy builds on the Department of Transportation’s view that automated vehicles hold enormous potential benefits for safety travel and sustainability.
The policy comes in four sections, with the first covering Vehicle Performance and including a 15-point “Safety Assessment” for the safe design, development, testing and deployment of automated vehicles.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has announced a safety policy regarding the deployment of autonomous vehicles onto U.S. roads.
With a new autonomous vehicle startup seemingly appearing each week and almost every automaker committing to self-driving vehicles, the Department of Transportation is issuing its clearest guidance to date in an attempt to take the reins of an industry that’s moving at a pace the feds have rarely, if ever, encountered.
The policy calls for a cease-and-desist authority enabling the government to immediately restrict or prohibit vehicles with serious safety risks.
The FMVSS-which dates back to 1966-assumes cars will be driven by human occupants. The guidelines also clarify some of the policy questions that have lagged technological advances in recent years.
The primary focus is on what the DoT calls “highly automated vehicles” (HAVs), which it further defines as “those in which the vehicle can take full control of the driving task in at least some circumstances”. If approved, it will be updated annually.
In a nutshell, the federal government will be responsible for regulating the vehicles themselves and the technology driving them, while states are tasked with testing and certifying drivers, determining rules regarding insurance and liability, and registering the self-driving vehicles.
The Association of Global Automakers released a statement welcoming the new guidance and model policy.
President Barack Obama also helped introduce the rules in an op-ed in the Post-Gazette in Pittsburgh, where Uber recently started testing a self-driving fleet.
“Ninety-four percent of crashes on USA roadways are caused by a human choice or error”, says NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind.
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So what exactly does the new policy on automated vehicles cover? He also noted that driverless cars could provide transportation options to senior citizens or the disabled. While automobile manufacturers have been working to develop automated cars for many years, the lack of clarity and uniformity in regulations across states has hampered full-scale development. As Recode points out, Lyft’s director of government relations, Robert Grant, said something nearly identical at a NHTSA testimony in April, opining that “the worst possible scenario for the growth of self-driving vehicles is an inconsistent patchwork of laws”.
