The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or NHTSA has revealed new, more forgiving rules for autonomous vehicle technology, though this comes too late for GM’s now-defunct Cruise AV subsidiary.
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has been expected to loosen autonomous vehicle rules and the latest news indicates the NHTSA is taking action on this front.
The new rules are called the Automated Vehicle Framework or, more tersely, the AV Framework. It will override local laws with national preemption in order to “prevent a harmful patchwork of state laws and regulations” according to the bureau. The central imperative under which it operates is to “blaze a path for the safe commercial deployments of AVs.”
The AV Framework is said to have three goals, including ensuring high priority to autonomous vehicle safety, getting rid of regulations that unnecessarily prevent innovation and ushering in “commercial deployment” of AVs in the U.S. Among the specific moves are streamlining crash reporting for autonomous vehicles and extending an exemption for non-compliant imported AVs to operate on American roads to domestic AVs as well.
Peter Simshauser, chief counsel for the NHTSA, says the new rules “are enabling AV manufacturers to develop faster and spend less time on unnecessary process, while still advancing safety.” Meanwhile Sean Duffy, the Transportation Secretary, emphasized that “our new framework will slash red tape and move us closer to a single national standard that spurs innovation and prioritizes safety.”
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, of which GM is a member, applauded the change. Its president and CEO John Bozzella said that the announcement “is a signal that AV policy in America isn’t an afterthought anymore.” He added that “this announcement shows the administration is also proceeding with a sense of urgency, so we don’t cede AV leadership to China and other countries.”
While GM dropped the Cruise robotaxi program it is still pursuing personal autonomous vehicle research that will presumably benefit from the loosened regulations.
Secretary of Transportation Duffy summarized the Trump administration’s thinking on the autonomous vehicle question and echoed John Bozzella by remarking that “we’re in a race with China to out-innovate, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.”
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