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In a
Nov. 12 letter to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA) reviewed by Reuters on Wednesday, the
director of Google's self-driving car project said the agency's
decision on how to construe safety regulations "will have major
impact" on its development.
NHTSA told Google in a Feb. 4 letter that it agreed it could
consider a Google self-driving computer system as the "driver"
of the vehicle - a major boost to getting self-driving cars on
the road. But the agency but stopped short of agreeing to
immediately waive all safety rules needed to allow fully
self-driving cars on the roads as sought in Google's letter.
In a statement on Wednesday, Transportation Secretary Anthony
Foxx said: "We are taking great care to embrace innovations that
can boost safety and improve efficiency on our roadways. Our
interpretation that the self-driving computer system of a car
could, in fact, be a driver is significant. But the burden
remains on self-driving car manufacturers to prove that their
vehicles meet rigorous federal safety standards."
In the Nov. 12 letter, Chris Urmson, head of Google's
self-driving car project, said the company's driverless vehicle
was designed to "meet or exceed" U.S. safety standards. Urmson
also noted that automated systems, such as Google's, "react
faster than human-driven cars" and "will not be subject to
driver distraction or impairment."
In its Feb. 4 response, NHTSA offered its most comprehensive map
yet of the legal obstacles to putting fully autonomous vehicles
on the road. It noted existing regulations requiring some auto
safety equipment, requirements for braking systems activated by
foot control, cannot be waived immediately. Federal regulations
requiring equipment like steering wheels and brake pedals would
have to be formally rewritten before Google could offer cars
without those features.
On Wednesday, longtime advocate Clarence Ditlow who is head of
the Center for Auto Safety, told Reuters: "It's better to write
a stand-alone rule for driverless vehicles. It may take more
work, but the end result is better for the consumer and the
driverless vehicle maker. And it may take less time than
rewriting all the standards."
(Reporting by David Shepardson and Paul Lienert; Editing by
Sandra Maler; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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