Skip to main content

NHTSA seeking comments on self-driving vehicle regulations

The National Highway Traffic-Safety Administration (NHTSA) is looking for comments on how best to test and deploy self-driving vehicles in the Department of Transportation's October 2017 Significant Rulemaking Report. In the report, NHSTA seeks comments to identify any unnecessary regulatory barriers to Automated Safety Technologies, and for the testing and compliance certification of motor vehicles with unconventional automated vehicles designs. In addition, particularly those that are not equipped with
November 6, 2017 Read time: 1 min

The National Highway Traffic-Safety Administration (NHTSA) is looking for comments on how best to test and deploy self-driving vehicles in the Department of Transportation's October 2017 Significant Rulemaking Report.

In the report, NHSTA seeks comments to identify any unnecessary regulatory barriers to Automated Safety Technologies, and for the testing and compliance certification of motor vehicles with unconventional automated vehicles designs. In addition, particularly those that are not equipped with controls for a human driver; e.g., steering wheel, brake or accelerator pedal. Further, NHTSA seeks comments on the research that would be required to remove such barriers. This action will inform subsequent steps in the regulatory process to amend Federal motor vehicle safety standards and other motor vehicle regulations in order to safely lay a path for innovative automated vehicle designs and technology.

NHTSA will consider submitted comments in future amendments to federal motor vehicle safety standards and other rules related to self-driving technologies.

Related Content

  • Ignoring deadly defects in autonomous cars serves no one, say auto safety advocates
    July 29, 2016
    The US Center for Auto Safety, Consumer Watchdog and former National Highway Traffic Administration (NHTSA) administrator Joan Claybrook have told NHTSA administrator Mark Rosekind that "you inexcusably are rushing full speed ahead" to promote the deployment of self-driving robot car technology instead of developing adequate safety standards "crucial to ensuring imperfect technologies do not kill people by being introduced into vehicles before the technology matures." In a letter to Rosekind in response
  • Debating the future of in-vehicle systems
    December 6, 2012
    Industry experts talk to Jason Barnes about the legislative situation of current and future in-vehicle systems. Articles about technology development can have a tendency to reference Moore’s Law with almost indecent regularity and haste but the fact remains that despite predictions of slow-down or plateauing, the pace remains unrelenting. That juxtaposes with a common tendency within the ITS industry: to concentrate on the technology and assume that much else – legislation, business cases and so on – will m
  • In-vehicle communication systems offer major safety benefits
    July 17, 2012
    Michael Schagrin and Raymond Resendes provide an update on the US Department of Transportation's vehicle-to-vehicle programme. The US Department of Transportation's (USDOT's) Vehicle-to- Vehicle (V2V) programme, which is concerned with wireless inter-vehicle communications for safety applications such as crash avoidance/mitigation, is a major safety component of the USDOT IntelliDrive cooperative infrastructure programme.
  • USDoT embraces Vision Zero
    January 31, 2022
    'We cannot tolerate the continuing crisis of roadway deaths,' says transport sec Pete Buttigieg