For most people, self-driving cars are just an abstraction, something they read about occasionally in the press but still consider a far-off, futuristic fantasy. They read the headlines and scoff, “Not in my lifetime.” But the events of this past month may help put a lot of that skepticism to rest. There was a flurry of activity in both Congress and the private sector over the past few weeks, signaling a key shift in the trajectory of self-driving cars and proving that these vehicles are much closer to reality than most people think.
Experts who’s job it is to pay close attention to this emerging technology have been impressed with the pace of developments in the last few weeks. “Out of the past three years that I’ve been researching [autonomous vehicle] policy, this is by far the most important month of Congressional action and partnerships I’ve seen yet,” said Greg Rogers, a policy analyst at the Eno Center for Transportation. “What we’re seeing right now is that autonomous vehicles are moving from their infancy into their adolescence.”
“this is by far the most important month”
First, and most significantly, the first federal legislation to regulate self-driving cars in the US was introduced on June 20th. These bills — there are 14 of them — would give the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) the power to increase the number of self-driving cars on public roads. And they would preempt the current patchwork of state laws regarding the enforcement of autonomous driving. Automakers and the big tech companies are in favor of the bills for two main reasons: they want to get their robot cars on the road faster than their competitors, and they would rather abide by one overarching set of federal laws than 50 individual state laws.
The package of bill includes a proposal to increase federal motor vehicle safety standard (FMVSS) exemption caps from 2,500 to 100,000 — which is a wonky way of saying that it would allow automakers and tech firms to test (and eventually deploy) autonomous vehicles without steering wheels, brake pedals, and other components designed with humans in mind and required by federal safety standards. Right now, these companies are testing cars that can at best be considered Level 3 autonomous, meaning they still require some human intervention. Some states have passed laws allowing for the testing of higher levels of automation, but most have yet to take up any legislation.