Blog 3: Government Proposes Regulations for Autonomous Cars

Government Proposes Regulations for Autonomous Cars

By Nicholas Van Zandt

On September 20, the Obama Administration proposed that greater regulatory requirements be enacted on the rapidly growing effort to put self-driving cars on the roads.  This proposal would require that greater transparency into the design of autonomous vehicles be made for the government and called on the manufacturers of these vehicle systems to provide greater details of how such systems work and the reasons for which they do or can fail.  The regulatory agency overseeing this proposal is the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and they are seeking voluntary submissions of these systems as part of a 15 point safety assessment.

Many autonomous vehicle manufacturers have already expressed reluctance for a formalized regulatory regime—considering how much has already been invested in these systems—and are concerned that doing this would drastically slow down the time in which these cars can be taken to market and out on the roads.  Regulators are nowhere near capable of passing legislation fast enough to keep pace with the rate that auto makers are pushing these to be out on America’s streets.  Political deadlock in Congress has made it even more likely that such regulations would stall the entire industry.

This voluntary submission of details relating to car design and the nature of the proposal to establish a national set of rules—instead of a patchwork of contradictory state-level rules—have largely been what the manufacturers have been asking for.  However, consumer advocates have been less than enthusiastic and have stated that “this new policy comes with a lot of bark but not enough bite”, according to Consumer Reports.

This could create problems as many manufacturers may find themselves in a position where sharing their vehicle system information could increase the risk that proprietary information could be revealed to their competitors.  Should this only be voluntary, there is a very likely chance that no such information will be shared while these cars are permitted out onto the roads.  Manufacturers will likely be in a significant rush to get their cars out into the market as fast as possible and safety standards could be placed in jeopardy.

Source:

David Shepardson, “U.S. Proposes Regulators have more say in Self-Driving Car Design,” Reuters, September 20, 2016, Available at: < http://www.reuters.com/article/usa-selfdriving-idUSL2N1BW2B1>.