NHTSA Waiting to Establish Safety Standards Until Self-Driving Fully Develops 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will establish safety standards for autonomous vehicles (AV) when the technology is “proven,” acting Administrator James Owens told Congress Wednesday. Industry is making significant adjustments to the technology, and the agency doesn’t want to stymie innovation, he said during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing.

A day earlier the National Transportation Safety Board said the driver of an Uber autonomous vehicle that killed a pedestrian in Tempe in 2018 (see 1805180066 and 1803200064) was distracted and at fault. NTSB issued several recommendations, including that NHTSA require self-drive companies to submit self-assessments on safety.

NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt repeated those recommendations Wednesday, saying there should be more federal oversight on how companies gauge safety. Of about 80 AV manufacturers, only 16 have voluntarily submitted assessments, and Uber wasn’t one of them, he said. The current framework isn’t working, he said, saying industry can’t be trusted to be objective because there’s a rush to the market.

Manufacturers are making safety adjustments, and when the technology is established and it’s determined it would be in the public’s interest, NHTSA will set standards, Owens said. The AV human interface and technology need guidelines, ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said, noting NTSB recommended conditions for vehicle testing.

The Department of Transportation is working to publish a comprehensive plan outlining the steps for safe and full integration of these technologies into the U.S. transportation system, said acting Undersecretary of Transportation-Policy Joel Szabat. The systems have the promise to be safer than human drivers, but until that promise is realized, the U.S. needs proper testing and regulations across governments, he said.

Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., noted the test vehicle in Tempe detected the pedestrian about 5 seconds before impact but failed to brake. According to NHTSA, more than 36,000 people were killed on U.S. roads in 2018, he said. He said 94 percent of those fatalities were attributable to human error, so AV technology has the potential to save thousands of lives.

Sponsors of AV legislation meant to set guardrails, Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and Gary Peters, D-Mich., agreed. This debate is happening as nearly 100 people die on highways each day, not to mention those who sustain major injuries, Peters said. Wicker noted the duo began a legislative restart this session and is in discussions with a bipartisan, bicameral group to get AV legislation to the finish line this year. “We’ve been building on what we’ve done before, but we’ve been in conversations in a bipartisan, bicameral way,” Peters told us after the hearing. It’s important that Congress move quickly so manufacturers can increase AV capability, he said during the hearing. Thune said it’s clear that AV technology could drastically improve safety.

Drivers of autonomous vehicles have found ways to fool AVs on the road, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said. He detailed evidence on YouTube showing drivers placing fruit or water bottles on AV steering wheels to fool the vehicles into operating as if the driver were engaged. Markey claimed one driver fell asleep for about 14 miles while the vehicle operated fully autonomously. He specifically singled out Tesla, urging the company to address the issue. Tesla needs to disable autopilot until the issue is fixed, Markey said. Owens committed to contacting Tesla directly about the issue. He noted no fully autonomous vehicles are allowed on the road today, as a human operator is required.

The panel discussed the various levels of AV capability. Owens said level-three cars could be operating on U.S. roads within the next couple of years. The future for level-five cars is more unclear, he said, noting it could be five to 10 years until upper level cars are on the road, maybe longer.

In the U.S., one fatality occurs every 100 million miles of travel for non-automated vehicles, said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., one of the key Democrats who successfully blocked AV legislation from advancing last year. He noted that all AV companies testing in California only drove about 2.1 million miles in 2018, and the track record isn’t good, even with a small sample size.