“Self-Driving Cars Set for Takeoff” - Jeff Swensen for The New York Times
Tomorrow, the Administration is announcing a new Federal Automated Vehicles Policy to help facilitate the responsible introduction of automated vehicles to make transportation safer, cleaner, more accessible, and more efficient.
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Simultaneously with this policy, NHTSA is releasing a final enforcement guidance bulletin clarifying how its recall authority applies to automated vehicle technologies. In particular, it emphasizes that semi-automated driving systems – ones in which the human continues to monitor the driving environment and perform some of the driving task – that fail to adequately account for the possibility that a distracted or inattentive driver-occupant might fail to retake control of the vehicle in a safety-critical situation may be defined as an unreasonable risk to safety and subject to recall. This ensures that companies and Americans understand our expectations around safety. If NHTSA determines that a vehicle is unsafe, it will use its authority to remove it from the road.
SAN FRANCISCO — Uber’s decision to bring self-driving taxis to the streets of Pittsburgh this week is raising alarms among a swath of safety experts who say that the technology is not nearly ready for prime time.
The unprecedented experiment will launch even though Pennsylvania has yet to pass basic laws that permit the testing of self-driving cars or rules that would govern what would happen in a crash. Uber is also not required to pass along any data from its vehicles to regulators.
Meanwhile, researchers note, autonomous cars have been thrown off by bridges, a particular problem in Pittsburgh, which has more bridges than any other major U.S. city.
“They are essentially making the commuters the guinea pigs,” said Joan Claybrook, a consumer-protection advocate and former head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “Of course there are going to be crashes. You can do the exact same tests without having average citizens in your car.”
Uber cars prepare to roll through Pittsburgh to map out the roads and topography before the introduction of the company’s driverless vehicles.
Jeff Swensen for The New York Times
Tesla and other automakers say that ultimately, self-driving cars and autonomous features will make driving safer and that eventually cars will be able to drive themselves better than humans can.
As it is now, the cars are able to manage normal driving conditions well, but have trouble in inclement weather or in unfamiliar driving situations, such as when bicyclists zoom by. In the case of the Tesla fatality, the company blamed the white side of the tractor trailer against a brightly lighted sky, which it said confused the car.
NHTSA is investigating the accident, thought to be the auto industry’s first fatality involving an autonomous driving feature.
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