By Alyson Walker Lotman and Theresa A. Langschultz
The United States Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a notice of proposed rule-making on March 17, 2020 designed to modernize federal safety standards on autonomous vehicles. The proposed rules are intended to pave the way for the future of autonomous vehicles by amending the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS). Proposed changes include allowing autonomous vehicles – specifically, those designed solely to carry property and goods – to be built without “traditional manual controls” and protective safety features meant for humans.
The NHTSA proposed rule-making aims to accelerate the development of self-driving cars by modernizing the FMVSS to account for autonomous vehicles without human passengers. The agency made clear that the proposal does not change existing occupant protection requirements for traditional passenger vehicles with manual controls.
The NHTSA’s proposal calls for easing or eliminating eleven FMVSS standards related to occupant protection, side-impact protection, seating systems, door locks, door retention, and other features related to shielding human occupants in the event of accidents, all of which could be unnecessary in the sub-category of autonomous vehicles that do not transport humans.
The current FMVSS standards were enacted at a time when all vehicles had human drivers, and when autonomous vehicle technology was the stuff of television magic. Currently, to obtain a waiver from FMVSS standards, autonomous vehicle manufacturers must submit an exemption for a waiver. However, the NHTSA has an exemption cap of 2,500 vehicles per manufacturer, which means the manufacturer can only produce 2,500 vehicles designed with the FMVSS exemption.
The NHTSA’s proposed rule could reduce regulatory barriers for advanced safety technologies which may be unnecessary in autonomous vehicles without human passengers, paving the way for safe testing and deployment of automated vehicle technologies to transport goods. The NHTSA will take public comments on its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for sixty days after the proposed rule is published in the Federal Register.