Obama administration officials are previewing long-awaited guidance that attempts to bring self-driving cars to the nation’s roadways safely – without creating so many roadblocks that the technology can’t make it to market quickly. He continued to explain that autonomous vehicles “will save time, money and lives”.
Advertisement
The guidelines come as the government has struggled with how to capitalize on the technology’s promised safety benefits – the cars can react faster than people, but don’t drink or get distracted – while making sure they are ready for widespread use.
Self-driving cars are no longer a thing of the future and over the past few years we have already seen Google and Tesla put vehicles on the road that can pretty much operate without a human being in the driver’s seat.
Announcing a 15-point safety assessment for driverless auto systems, Foxx stressed that the government wants to work with developers – which include most large automakers as well as tech giants such as Uber and Alphabet (Google) – without stifling their efforts. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can.
The guidelines allow automakers to seek exemptions from NHTSA from federal safety standards that might be outdated, such as a rule requiring a steering wheel in brake pedals in a vehicle without a human driver. They are either approved or deleted. Data isn’t now collected industrywide. On Monday, regulators announced a new set of guidelines governing self-driving cars.
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 vehicle, officials said. The department also said it would assert its authority to recall semi-autonomous and fully autonomous vehicles found to be unsafe.
The guidelines come in the form of a 15-point list in the Federal Automated Vehicles Policy, which outlines how driverless auto makers test their vehicles, record crash and other data, provide data protection for users as well as ensuring the cars can handle unforeseen situations. But the bulletin would address events like a fatal crash in Florida that occurred while a Tesla Model S was operating on the company’s semi-autonomous Autopilot system. New York, on the other hand, has a longstanding law that requires drivers keep one hand on the wheel at all times, which undermines the rationale for self-driving technology.
Some consumer advocates have objected to administration’s decision to pursue voluntary guidelines instead of drafting safety rules and standards that are legally enforceable.
Advertisement
Industry reaction, however, was largely favorable. Yet if a manufacturer doesn’t follow the guidelines “it will be open and apparent”, he said. Krisher and Durbin reported from Detroit.
