What’s Needed for More Self-Driving Vehicle Development?

A concern facing Congress is what will be needed for automakers to develop their self-driving vehicles that will be used on public roads.

Different states have already issued specific guidelines for automakers to adhere to, but the number of testing areas has grown to a point that national guidelines will be needed. This is a difficult decision facing Congress which had been put on the back burner before the election until the new members were all sworn in.

What Could Self-Driving Regulations Look Like?

Are you confident that cars that can drive on their own are safe? Most of us aren’t confident in this at all. There are many reasons for this lack of confidence, but most of it has to do with our lack of trust in the security and function of the systems that will operate a vehicle. With this in mind, we should expect that self-driving vehicles will be tested with a human driver behind the wheel for at least the near future.

How Should Accidents be Reported When an Autonomous Vehicle is in a Crash?

Currently, California requires companies to report any crash on public roads involving self-driving vehicles. This allows for a bit of transparency for the public to use as information and develop opinions. Other states do not require this yet, but a federal regulation could require this across all states in the near future.

Current Safety Standards Are Required

For automakers to be approved for self-driving testing, they must meet nearly 75 auto safety standards. These standards do have one flaw in them right now. This flaw is that they are written with the assumption a human is behind the wheel and can take over the operation of the vehicle if the automated system fails to perform properly.

The Time for Action by Congress is Now

Unfortunately, Congress cannot ignore the need for regulations and rules regarding the development of self-driving vehicles. In some areas, testing has been successful while in others it’s been a disaster. After a crash in 2018 that cost a pedestrian their life when hit by a self-driving vehicle, it seems that federal rules are already late in arriving to help guide automakers in the safe development of this technology.

The Future Might be Muddled

If Congress places regulations and rules regarding the development of self-driving vehicles and the infrastructure to support them, it may slow the progress, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. We might not see fully-autonomous driving vehicles during most of our lives, but our children and grandchildren might during theirs. We don’t know how these systems are going to work when uses, but while in the testing stages, it’s imperative that Congress work to make sure the roads are safe.

We do know that a perfect world of self-driving vehicles would be safer than when people drive, but we don’t have that perfect world yet. This is just one of the automotive issues facing Congress as they start to look at the year ahead of them and what it might bring.