The Obama administration is rolling new guidelines for companies developing driverless cars.
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But technology companies will probably bristle at having to share data after an accident involving a self-driving vehicle, said Katie Thomson, former senior counsel at the Department of Transportation and FAA and now a partner at the law firm Morrison & Foerster.
The U.S. Department of Transportation on Tuesday unveiled a 100-page report, the Federal Automated Vehicles Policy, which serves as an “ambitious approach to accelerate the (autonomous vehicle) revolution”.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the regulatory unit that governs automakers, will also explore greater authorities to seek recalls for autonomous systems or approve new technologies before they hit the road. Self-driving vehicles are no longer science fiction, as many companies either have autonomous cars under development or ready for use.
Foxx pointed out that drivers and cars have always been regulated by individual states in a “patchwork” of laws. This will ensure that the road regulations that states now control will not be any different with autonomous vehicles. “Strides in this technology have the potential to improve safety on our roads and reduce congestion in urban areas”, Ford said.
States will still have the power to issue driver’s licenses, collect registration fees, make rules governing inspections and oversee insurance laws. Others have looked at tighter controls. The federal authorities are only able to provide guidance here – the government is letting individual states have the responsibility for enforcing legislation and regulation. “Ultimately, this will bring these safety and convenience technologies to market more quickly for consumers”.
Less than a week ago, ride-sharing service Uber launched a small fleet of driverless cars on to the streets of Pittsburgh.
“As automakers continue to pioneer these technologies in concert with hundreds of global technology partners, the Alliance urges policymakers at all levels to proceed cautiously in creating new frameworks that could delay the introduction of these technologies”, the AAM said in a statement.
Automakers sought the NHTSA guidance in part because they fear a patchwork of state laws will slow or complicate deployment of self-driving cars. Google, for example, has logged roughly two million miles of testing with its driverless cars. Uber’s top rival, Lyft, formed a partnership with GM to accelerate its own efforts.
Self-driving cars have the potential to save thousands of lives lost on the nation’s roads each year and to change the lives of the elderly and the disabled, President Barack Obama said in an op-ed published Monday by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Regulators want them to make vehicle performance assessments public so that all of the companies can learn from the data and enhance safety.
Thus far, information about these cars that we’re told are about to become widespread for use in our city is scant.
The Obama administration’s automated vehicles policy attempts to impose some safety standards on a technology that is rapidly evolving and largely unregulated.
But some of the rules will extend to advanced driver-assistance systems, like those in Teslas, that can handle significant levels of driving even while demanding a person stay at the wheel of the auto, officials said.
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Tesla’s driver-assistance features, which the company calls Autopilot, have been under intense scrutiny in the wake of a fatal crash in Florida May 7.
