Thune, Peters Agree on Self-Driving Vehicle Bill Slated for Senate Commerce Markup Wednesday

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., and Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., agreed on text for a self-driving vehicle bill, which will be an item at a 10 a.m. Wednesday markup in 216 Hart. The American Vision for Safer Transportation Through Advancement of Revolutionary Technologies Act (S-1885) requires manufacturers to submit safety evaluation reports, including information about crashworthiness, cybersecurity and safety, to the Department of Transportation before any vehicles are tested or deployed, said a Thursday news release. Similar to House legislation already passed (see 1709060035), the Senate bill would allow manufacturers to get exemptions from auto safety standards: up to 50,000 highly automated vehicles in the first year, 75,000 in the second and then 100,000 annually. They could request more exemptions in the fifth year. The Senate bill would give DOT primary responsibility of a vehicle's design, construction and performance, pre-empting laws enacted by state and local authorities, which would continue to have oversight over traffic laws and vehicle registration and licensing. DOT would work with manufacturers to adopt disclosure policies for cybersecurity vulnerabilities and require vehicle makers to develop a comprehensive written plan for identifying and reducing such risks. The bill would establish a panel to develop recommendations on data sharing and advance guidelines on consumer education and marketing. The bill would apply only to vehicles weighing 10,000 pounds or less. The Senate panel at a hearing two weeks ago discussed whether to include self-driving truck technology in the bill, which was a point of contention between Thune and Peters (see 1709130039). "While this Senate self-driving vehicle legislation still has room for further changes, it is a product of bipartisan cooperation we both stand behind," Thune and Peters said in a joint Wednesday statement.