Law & Order

U.S. Department of Transportation Issues Plan to Rewrite Safety Rules to Cover Driverless Vehicles

By SEMA Washington, D.C., Staff

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) released a plan to further accommodate automated vehicle (AV) technologies. Since some federal safety standards effectively assume the presence of drivers, the DOT will ease the process for exempting cars, trucks and other vehicles from existing standards requiring a driver if the vehicles achieve an equivalent level of safety.

Transportation officials will also work with their state and local counterparts to eliminate any unnecessary impediments that preclude driverless vehicles. The plan continues to rely on companies to voluntarily assess that their vehicles are safe enough to be on public roads. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will also continue to work with the states and industry to consider possible new regulations. The DOT plan is called “Preparing for the Future of Transportation: Automated Vehicles 3.0,” which builds upon the previously guidelines called “Automated Driving Systems: A Vision for Safety 2.0.”

For more information, visit www.transportation.gov/av/3.