Pennsylvania has played an important role in the development of autonomous vehicles and new federal recommendations released Tuesday will not alter the state’s ongoing efforts.
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Any doubt about the reality or imminence of driverless cars has all but vanished with the issuance of US government guidelines signaling Washington’s intent to regulate the transformative technology’s rollout during the next several years.
Among the new regulations is a requirement that all autonomous cars be fitted with aircraft style black boxes to record what happens in the event of a crash. “Manufacturers or other entities should have the technical and legal capability to share the relevant recorded information”.
“If a self-driving auto isn’t safe, we have the authority to pull it off the road. We won’t hesitate to protect the American public’s safety”, he wrote in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Monday. “We’re determined to help the private sector get this technology right from the start”, the president wrote.
NHTSA’s document provides a 15-point safety assessment for automakers to comply with before they roll out their autonomous cars.
The guidelines also include testing and backup systems in the case of a self-driving computer failure.
The government now allows automakers to self-certify that vehicles comply with safety standards.
The new policies pertaining to the development, testing and use of autonomous cars have been implemented as guidelines, giving more wiggle room than official regulations, which are typically stringent and frequently enforced, the New York Times recently reported. Tesla modified its system following the accident.
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While the framework was expected to cede to state rules, the federal government is calling for uniform regulations. Laid out in four sections, the policy aims to be holistic, ensuring automated vehicles are safe and user-friendly before they reach wide scale adoption on public roads. The full policy on self-driving vehicles, released Tuesday, presents guidelines for manufacturers including data recording, crashworthiness and cybersecurity.
