Senate Democrats urge crackdown on autonomous vehicles and driver assist

Two salient Senate Democrats are calling for accrued scrutiny of autonomous vehicles and precocious driver-assist systems (ADAS) for illustration Tesla’s Autopilot, arguing that nan unimpeded travel of highly automated vehicles connected nationalist roads successful caller years risks exacerbating nan postulation information situation successful nan US.

Automakers and tech companies opportunity nan exertion tin lead to safer streets. But location person been a number of high-profile incidents successful caller years involving afloat autonomous vehicles, arsenic good arsenic hundreds of crashes and dozens of fatalities successful vehicles equipped pinch precocious driver-assist systems. The 2 senators, Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Ed Markey (D-MA), reason that nan National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s regulatory authority is astatine consequence of being outpaced by nan technology.

“We cannot let partially automated driving systems and ADS to accelerate nan roadworthy information crisis,” they write. “NHTSA must return patient power of nan instrumentality and steer manufacturers towards prioritizing safety.”

They impulse NHTSA to usage its callback authority to prohibit immoderate driver-assist features from being utilized connected definite roads. The senators opportunity that NHTSA missed an opportunity to put limits connected Tesla’s Autopilot earlier this erstwhile it recalled nan feature complete concerns astir drivers utilizing it connected roads wherever it wasn’t intended to operate.

“We stay concerned that Autopilot, and features for illustration it successful different vehicles, could lead drivers to go overconfident and distracted, putting them and different roadworthy users astatine risk,” Blumenthal and Markey constitute successful a missive to NHTSA Acting Administrator Sophie Shulman. 

The senators commend NHTSA for its standing wide bid from 2021 requiring each automakers and exertion companies to taxable reports of crashes involving autonomous vehicles and vehicles equipped pinch ADAS. But they echo galore experts successful noting that nan image it presents is incomplete and should research requiring much thorough reporting by companies.

“Like a car pinch only 1 moving headlight, NHTSA isn’t seeing each nan imaginable information concerns facing drivers and roadworthy users, and truthful can’t return nan basal actions to protect them,” they say.

Blumenthal and Markey make respective much recommendations, including latency requirements for distant operators. And they impulse NHTSA to reconsider its scheme to let for nan merchandise of much vehicles without accepted controls, for illustration steering wheels and pedals, nether a caller aviator program.

“Public roads are not a sandbox for manufacturers aliases operators to play in, and regulatory agencies for illustration NHTSA should beryllium highly cautious astir providing lax pathways onto nan roadworthy for vulnerable vehicles,” they write.

Blumenthal and Markey aren’t caller to this issue. The 2 Northeastern officials person besides called for investigations into Tesla’s branding of its Level 2 driver-assist characteristic arsenic Full Self-Driving.