The
chief executive of Cruise, Dan Ammann, in a letter to Biden
dated May 17, asked him to back legislation raising the cap on
the number of vehicles that a company can seek to have exempted
from safety standards that do not meet existing federal
requirements that assume human drivers are in control.
The cap, Ammann wrote, "acts as a U.S.-only impediment to
building these vehicles at scale in the United States." Cruise
provided a copy of the letter to Reuters.
"China’s top down, centrally directed approach imposes no
similar restraints on their home grown AV industry," Ammann
wrote. "We do not seek, require or desire government funding; we
seek your help in leveling the playing field," he said, citing
research that AVs are "estimated to create and sustain 108,000
jobs over the next five years."
The White House declined to comment on Monday.
Senators John Thune and Gary Peters have been working for
several years on efforts to ease restrictions on AVs. An
amendment to a bill designed to address U.S. competitiveness
against China proposed by Thune to raise the cap stalled last
week amid opposition from labor unions and plaintiffs attorneys,
but Thune and Peters are expected to continue to pursue the
issue.
Thune and Peters in April circulated language for potential
legislation to grant the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration the power to lift the cap and initially exempt
15,000 self-driving vehicles per manufacturer, rising to 80,000
within three years. The NHTSA would need to certify self-driving
vehicles exempted are at least as safe as human-driven ones.
Ammann, in his letter to Biden, said that "without your support
and congressional action to revise these self imposed barriers,
the U.S. AV manufacturing industry will lag, AI development will
stall, and our foreign competitors will race ahead."
The auto industry, Alphabet Inc's Waymo and others have been
pushing for years to convince Congress to speed self-driving
vehicle deployment.
Reuters reported May 11 that Waymo and California-based Cruise
have applied for permits needed to start charging for rides and
delivery using autonomous vehicles in San Francisco, citing
state documents.
In October, Cruise said it planned to seek NHTSA approval to
deploy a limited number of Cruise Origin vehicles without
steering wheels or pedals. The Origin, which was developed with
GM and Cruise investor Honda Motor, has two long seats facing
each other that can comfortably fit four passengers. Production
is expected to begin in early 2023.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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