For crashes to which none of these conditions are not met, NHTSA must be informed within 15 days if other conditions are met, including a threshold for property damage, as well as when another vehicle was involved.
NHTSA also draws up exemptions for some safety standards for the federal motor vehicle for American manufacturers. “This exemption promotes innovative designs, such as prototype vehicles, through an iterative assessment process that takes into account the overall safety of the vehicle, together with the purposes for which the exemption is requested,” Nhtsa wrote in a letter to industry. So robotaxis without lateral mirrors or a steering wheel should now be implemented more easily in the American streets.
The news was welcomed by the car industry. “This technology works. It will help to improve the safety on the roads and to increase mobility,” says Alliance for Automotive Innovation President and CEO John Bozzella. “But the ability of AV developers, investors, car manufacturers and consumers to achieve their full potential is impeded by the government inactivity. It is time to go to the next phase of autonomous driving in America, and that requires – required – a regulatory framework and a path to finally implement AVs in the country.”
Hopefully there are still enough experts at NHTSA to handle the paperwork. Earlier this month, dozens of people who are directly responsible for regulating the safety of autonomous vehicles were rejected in the Order of Elon Musk, which has CEO of Tesla – who is subject to numerous NHTSA security studies, many with partially automated driving – among his many daily jobs.
