Tesla fatality can’t dissuade NHTSA from self-driving upside

Despite a fatal crash setback for the self-driving car industry, the leading U.S. car safety regulator said it is standing behind autonomous vehicles.

Automotive News reported on a conference with Mark Rosekind, chief of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. During the conference Rosekind indicated that the U.S. government would not pull back its support for research and development into self-driving cars.

Rosekind’s comments come after it was revealed that a Tesla S-model car was involved in a fatal crash this may. At the time of the Florida accident, the car was using autopilot software which is designed to take over driving of the car so that the driver can take their hands off the steering wheel for periods of time.

NHTSA opened a formal investigation into the crash of the Model S, though the government chose to say little on the ongoing Tesla probe.

“No one incident will derail the Department of Transportation and NHTSA from its mission to improve safety on the roads by pursuing new lifesaving technologies,” said Rosekind.

NHTSA wants to know what accidents have been avoided

He continued by saying that his agency still sees a strong future for self-driving car technology, which has the potential to reduce 94% of vehicle accidents caused by human error.

The NHTSA previously said it was releasing safety guidelines for self-driving cars by July 14. However, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx changed the timeline by saying that these won’t be released until “late summer.” The guidelines being developed by NHTSA were to stipulate conditions for the deployment of autonomous vehicles and how they are to behave under various conditions.

Rosekind said that the agency would ensure that autonomous autos would be “much safer” than human pilots before they are allowed to tear around U.S. highways. However, he chose not to quantify how much safer they must be before the threshold is crossed and self-driving cars get the green light.

“If we wait for perfect, we’ll be waiting for a very, very long time,” said Rosekind. “How many lives might we be losing while we wait?”

The comments by government officials come amid concerns that the fragmentation of the U.S. regulatory environment for self-driving car testing and deployment is putting America at a disadvantage compared to nimbler governments around the globe.

US government may legalize autonomous cars by July

The current state of autonomous vehicles in the U.S. is fragmented. Some states allow testing and semi-autonomous driving, others are staunchly against Google, Uber, and even leading automakers like General Motors testing self-driving vehicles in their state.

That may change in July, when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) publishes federal guidelines for autonomous vehicles, which will supposedly be more lenient on testing and possibly legalize self-driving systems for public use.

“What is unusual is everybody expects regulation comes out and that’s what it is forever, and NHTSA’s job is react and enforce it,” said senior administrator Mark Rosekind during a panel at the TU-Automotive auto-tech conference in Novi. “That will not work with this area. I think we’re going to have something different in July.”

The Department of Transportation will focus on four main areas in the announcement, according to Rosekind. Those include deployment, state policies, less vague process terminology, and new tools.

NHTSA rules may clean up state rules

Deployment and operations may provide autonomous car vendors with ways to market their vehicle, ensuring that customers know the semi-autonomous features and how to utilize them. We assume the new tools for authorities will also look towards teaching the public about self-driving, while also speeding the rate of deployment.

Fixing state policies and terminology is a major part of a successful deployment for autonomous vehicles. Most autonomous vendors will not deploy systems that are even vaguely considered illegal, which could cause a slowdown in testing and commercialization.

We’ve already seen vague terminology scare ethical hackers away, after Michigan Senators pushed for a life sentence for people that hack connected cars. Creating a federal code for self-driving could be a way to stop these laws from entering the Senate, while also providing more transparency to vendors on what is allowed on the roads.