US DoT seeks voluntary AV standards

US authorities have signalled that voluntary – rather than compulsory – standards will be the way forward to integrate automated vehicles (AVs) into the country’s transport system. The US Department of Transportation (USDOT) has issued new AV guidance but warns that the new document - Preparing for the Future of Transportation: Automated Vehicles 3.0 (AV 3.0) - does not replace the voluntary guidance it provided in Automated Driving Systems 2.0: A Vision for Safety. “The safe integration of automated
October 11, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
US authorities have signalled that voluntary – rather than compulsory – standards will be the way forward to integrate automated vehicles (AVs) into the country’s transport system.


The 324 US Department of Transportation (USDOT) has issued new AV guidance but warns that the new document - Preparing for the Future of Transportation: Automated Vehicles 3.0 (AV 3.0) - does not replace the voluntary guidance it provided in Automated Driving Systems 2.0: A Vision for Safety.

“The safe integration of automated vehicle technology into our transportation system will increase productivity, facilitate freight movement and create new types of jobs,” says US transportation secretary Elaine L. Chao.

AV 3.0 is concerned with “identifying and supporting the development of automation-related voluntary standards developed through organisations and associations, which can be an effective non-regulatory means to advance the integration of automation technologies”.

It also says the USDoT will “interpret and, consistent with all applicable notice and comment requirements, adapt the definitions of ‘driver’ or ‘operator’ as appropriate to recognise that such terms do not refer exclusively to a human, but may include an automated system”.

The guidance also states that the DoT is “continuing its work to preserve the ability for transportation safety applications to function in the 5.9 GHz spectrum”.

The DoT says that the document incorporates the results of “extensive stakeholder engagement” with manufacturers, technology developers, infrastructure owners and operators, bus transit, and state and local governments.

The draft guidance is to be published in the Federal Register for public review and comment.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Machine vision’s transport offerings move on apace
    June 30, 2016
    Colin Sowman considers some of the latest advances in camera technology and transport-related vision technology applications. Vision technology in the transportation sector is moving apace as technical developments on both the hardware and software sides combine to make cameras more multifunctional with a single digital camera now able to cover a multitude of tasks.
    Read More
  • $160m available for US ITS projects
    September 21, 2022
    Significant boost for ITS from Bipartisan Infrastructure Law signed last year
    Read More
  • Basler launches twelve new ace cameras feature Sony Pregius sensors
    April 4, 2017
    Industrial digital camera manufacturer Basler has begun series production of 12 new Ace models with IMX250, IMX252, IMX264 and IMX265 sensors from Sony's Pregius line, offering resolutions from 3.2 to 5 megapixels and frame rates of up to 120fps.
    Read More
  • Report: AVs and MaaS could ‘reduce traffic by 14%’
    May 16, 2019
    If you replace today’s traditional private car ownership with a mixture of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) and on-demand autonomous vehicles (AVs) running door-to-door, you could make dramatic cuts in city traffic, according to new research. The Oslo Study – How autonomous cars may change transport in cities shows that, “in the most optimistic scenario a reduction of 14 % traffic is possible”. But researchers warn that the traffic reduction potential “is less than estimated in previous studies from other citi
    Read More

Highlighted Content