DETROIT (AP) — In the waning days of President Joe Biden’s administration, the government’s highway safety agency is proposing voluntary safety guidelines for self-driving vehicles.
But a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration rule implementing the plan won’t be approved before the end of Biden’s term in January and will likely be left to whoever runs the agency under Republican Donald Trump.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who Trump appointed to co-lead a Department of Government Efficiency to reduce costs and regulations, has floated the idea that he would help develop safety standards for self-driving vehicles — even if the standards affect Tesla’s automated driving systems.
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Currently, there are no federal regulations specifically governing autonomous vehicles, and any regulation is left up to the states. However, self-driving vehicles must meet broad federal safety standards that cover all passenger vehicles.
Under the agency’s proposal, released Friday, automakers and autonomous vehicle companies would be able to enroll in a program that would require safety plans and some data reporting for autonomous vehicles operating on public roads.
To apply, companies would have to have independent reviews of their automated vehicle safety processes, and there would be requirements to report accidents and other problems with the vehicles.
Companies would be required to provide NHTSA with information and data regarding the safety of the design, development and operation of the vehicles. The agency would decide whether companies would be included in the program.
But car safety advocates say the plan falls short of necessary regulations for self-driving vehicles. For example, it does not set specific performance standards for the vehicles, such as numbers and types of sensors or whether the vehicles can see objects in low visibility, they said.
“This is a lot of nothing,” said Missy Cummings, director of the Autonomy and Robotics Center at George Mason University and a former NHTSA safety adviser. “It will become more of a completely pointless paperwork exercise where the companies swear they are doing the right thing.”
Michael Brooks, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety, said one of the few good things about the plan is that companies will have to report data on accidents and other problems. There are reports that the Trump administration may want to scrap an NHTSA order that now requires autonomous vehicle companies to report crashes to the agency so it can collect data.
A message was left Friday seeking comment from the Trump transition team on crash reporting requirements.
Brooks said the new administration will likely want to issue its own version of the guidelines.
NHTSA will seek public comment on the plan for about 60 days, after which the plan must work its way through the federal regulatory process, which could take months or even years.
“It is important that ADS (Automated Driving System) technology is deployed in a way that protects the public from unreasonable safety risks while allowing responsible development of this technology, which has the potential to promote safety,” the statement said. proposed rule. say.
The agency acknowledges that in the future, NHTSA may need to establish minimum standards for the performance of self-driving vehicles that are similar to the mandatory safety standards that apply to human-powered cars. But the agency says it now lacks data and statistics to support these standards. The voluntary plan would help collect these, the proposal said.
