Washington Automakers and tech companies will have to work hard to clear regulatory hurdles before they can put self-driving cars (called “autonomous vehicles” or “AVs”) on public roads without a human driver.
Ford Motor Co (F.N) and Volkswagen AG (VOWG p.DE) said on Wednesday that they would shut down self-driving startup Argo AI because the technology wasn’t ready yet. This is also true when it comes to rules about technology.
Congress hasn’t passed any new laws in more than five years because they can’t agree on how to change regulations to include self-driving cars and how to protect consumers and the law.
And U.S. regulators haven’t said when they might act on requests to let a few thousand self-driving cars without steering wheels or brake pedals on U.S. roads first. On Thursday, no one from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) would say when they might take action.
Buttigieg, who is in charge of U.S. transportation, said this month that he has “theoretically, self-driving cars and high-tech cars could save tens of thousands of lives. This is because humans have a pretty bad track record when it comes to driving cars. We’re not there yet, though. ”
Some people in the industry and in Washington also see developing technology for self-driving cars as a matter of competition.
Many lawmakers and business leaders have told Buttigieg that if he doesn’t create a comprehensive federal framework for self-driving cars, the U.S. could lose the race to China.
In April, a dozen Democratic U.S. senators wrote, “We are behind in creating a regulatory framework that will encourage this innovation while also protecting and promoting all of the important benefits we think autonomous vehicles are capable of bringing.”
The letter talked about how competitors, especially China, “have put a lot of money into technologies for autonomous and connected vehicles.”
SOARING TRAFFIC DEATHS
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the number of traffic deaths in the U.S. has risen sharply. Last year, the number of traffic deaths went up 10.5%, to 42,915. That was the most people who died in one year since 2005.
Advocates say that autonomous vehicles could cut down on traffic deaths, make it easier for disabled people to get around, cut down on the need for parking in crowded cities, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In July, the NHTSA, which is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, opened petitions from General Motors GM.N and Ford for public comment. The petitions asked the regulatory agency to let each company put up to 2,500 self-driving cars on the road each year without human controls like steering wheels and brake pedals. Neither car company is trying to get permission to sell self-driving cars to consumers.
GM wants to use the Origin, a car with doors like those on a subway car and no steering wheel. GM says that passengers will have to fasten their seat belts before the ride can start on its own.
But the automaker in Detroit is having trouble. The City and County of San Francisco said in its comments that GM and Cruise didn’t give enough data and didn’t do enough to “document or analyse the safety performance” of the self-driving cars. This was done because GM asked for it and because an autonomous car crashed in June.
Cruise said that “the vast majority of public comments on the Cruise Origin are positive,” which shows that the vehicle is good for the environment, people with disabilities, and American jobs.
In 2017, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would have made it easier for self-driving cars to be used and stopped states from setting their own performance standards. However, the U.S. Senate never voted on the bill.
Representative Debbie Dingell, a Democrat from Michigan, told Reuters in July, “We’re working hard to find that common ground so we can pass something.”
The outlook for the new Congress, which starts in January, is very uncertain, and labour unions and groups of plaintiffs’ lawyers have fought hard against the bill.
Even though there are no new laws, the NHTSA has been paying more attention to advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous vehicle systems in the past few months. Last year, the agency told all automakers and tech companies that make self-driving cars to report crashes as soon as possible.
