[AutonomousVehicles] DOT Needs Help Writing the Rules for Driverless Vehicles

[Bill Meeker and Cheryl Orgas]

Colleagues,

 

Regarding autonomous vehicles, the below article states, in part, "the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is looking for ways to keep
them safe for both their passengers and other drivers."  Pedestrians are not
mentioned.

 

As the administration has asked for public input, perhaps we are presented
with an opportunity to request it includes pedestrians, sighted and blind,
in its safety and crash avoidance standards development.

 

Hoping that pedestrians, including blind pedestrians, their guide dogs and
canes are included in safety and crash avoidance standards for autonomous
vehicles.

 

Sincerely,

 

William Meeker

 

 

DOT Needs Help Writing the Rules for Driverless Vehicles

By
<https://www.nextgov.com/voices/jack-corrigan/13137/?oref=ng-post-author?ore
f=rf-post-author> Jack Corrigan 

May 28, 2019

 

 

Many of today's regulations focus on giving drivers more control over their
cars, but for driverless cars, the Transportation Department will need to
take humans out of the equation.

 

The Transportation Department is trying to figure out how to adapt existing
vehicle safety standards for driverless cars that come with far fewer human
controls.

With more autonomous vehicles hitting the road in the years ahead, the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is looking for ways to keep
them safe for both their passengers and other drivers on the road. Current
safety regulations focus heavily on making sure drivers can maneuver
vehicles away from danger, but when humans are removed from the equation,
NHTSA will need new ways to make sure cars can keep themselves out of harm's
way.

The administration on Tuesday asked for public input on how to address the
challenges that will inevitably arise when regulators try to apply today's
vehicle safety standards to autonomous vehicles. While some of the safety
regulations that protect today's human-operated vehicles will translate to
their driverless counterparts, officials said a number of the rules will
need to be revised.

"NHTSA anticipates that [autonomous vehicles] can serve a vital safety role
on the nation's roads, particularly since human error and choice are
critical factors behind the occurrence of a large number of crashes,"
officials wrote in the advanced notice of proposed rulemaking
<https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2019-05-28/pdf/2019-11032.pdf> .
"However, for [autonomous vehicle] technologies to develop fully,
technological and regulatory barriers must be overcome."

The solicitation focuses on revising the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety
Standards related to "crash avoidance" for vehicles that would be expected
to prevent crashes on their own. Today, there are 27 such regulations on the
books.

According to officials, those barriers fall largely in one of two buckets:
regulations on systems that might not exist in autonomous vehicles, like
requiring brake pedals in all cars, and regulations that NHTSA can only test
using nonexistent systems. For example, NHTSA requires cars to have systems
that prevent them from swerving out of control, but regulators test those
systems using steering wheels, which wouldn't exist in autonomous vehicles.

"NHTSA's long-term goal is to use what the agency learns from this
[solicitation] ... to develop a proposal to amend the crash avoidance
[standards] in ways that address these and other compliance challenges with
a continued focus on safety," officials wrote. Regulation

The department plans to accept public feedback through July 29. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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