Autonomous vehicles are coming. With testing happening on public roads, some safety advocates have called for federal regulations on self-driving vehicles. But according to the nation’s top auto safety official, it’s not yet “appropriate” to put regulations in place.
Heidi King is the deputy administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). She’s been the acting head since last year and was nominated to fill the top spot in April. According to King, it’s just not time to regulate autonomous vehicles.
“At this point the technology is so nascent I don’t think it is appropriate today to regulate this technology,” King said in an interview according to Autonews.com. “It’s not there yet, but each and every day we are open to identifying when the time is right.”
Instead of regulating, NHTSA has actually been pushing to make it easier for automotive and tech companies to test autonomous vehicles. That momentum was largely halted in March after the fatal accident in which an Uber vehicle in autonomous mode struck and killed a pedestrian.
According to King however, a bigger risk than autonomous vehicles are the road safety issues we’ve been dealing with for generations – drunk driving and seat belt use.
“In the grand scheme of things in saving lives, impaired drivers and flawed human choices are still the big problems we need to solve as a nation,” she said.
Source: truckinginfo, autonews, kval
GB says
Yes, Im sure after the first dozen people are killed by autonomous trucks someone will start to say, “Hey, people are getting killed, maybe we should start regulating these driverless trucks.” Brilliant Federal regulators. Regulate drivers to the point at which no one wants to do the job and can make a decent living doing the job, but don’t regulate the machines and computers as they hurt and kill people. So, who gets sued and put in jail when these driverless trucks kill people? Corporate CEO types who purchased them? When these driverless trucks don’t meet Federal or state regulations who gets the ticket? Who gets the points on their license? WHo suffers when the bad stuff happens? No wonder no one under 30 wants to consider driving a truck. Get ready America for computer guided accidents galore at your expense and your children’s expense.
Wesley says
They already happening they just aren’t being reported.
Donald Wilkerson says
Geez! People getting kill by just the few out there now. Guess, money talks through PAC.
Kevin says
The latest info I could find, as of Jan, 2017 11 accidents involving driverless cars and two deaths. That’s with her few on the road! Also heard, on average one the vehicles need some kind of human intervention every 13 miles.
All I can say is Why? At what point do we say enough?
shogun says
Rarely in government is a person qualified to make decisions. I bet Heidi couldn’t release the brakes on my truck.
Trey says
So its APPROPRIATE to regulate us BUT NOT A MACHINE
Lynne Palmer says
Can these “machines” read work zone signs at night? Or even at all? 3 right lanes closed…merge now…then all cars wait till the last second to merge and make a “dive” for the lane..right in front of a truck. Who gets killed? Who calls the dead persons family?
James Taggart says
Why, who are all of you to make such ridiculous claims?! The government knows best – they are experts! They are not greedy shoddy truck drivers, no sir, they are working for everyone’s best interests! Such silly complaints everyone has. Oh well. Who is John Galt?
David C Bowman says
Maybe they’ll kill the one road crew work that works 1 hour a month in Illinois. Hint Illinois is a joke at road work. I’ve seen 5 people lay miles of road in rule areas in a few days. Anyway maybe they’ll fine the government, put Congress in prison and electric chair to the president for being murder accomplice.
Shaun says
“No regulations yet”. Yet= Until we figure out a way to line our pockets on this deal. Might be a while, since there’s no working man involved- but I’m sure they’ll figure something out.
J-Bar says
So the same mentality behind greedy rapacious corporations that gave us computer operating systems that crashed ten times a day in the 1990’s because there were absolutely no regulations in place requiring they act any better, now will self regulate auto safety… we get the same “who needs standards even for life safety?” caliber of response that we also see from the self regulating behavior also behind asbestos, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the Fukushima meltdown and “completely immune to all lawsuits in the US” vaccine industry? I wonder how this will turn out.
Hint: We already know.
Northeast says
We’ll never be competitive w/ machines if the Feds keep regulating us to death… which is the point, of course.
Same reason that when the minimum wage is jacked up to 11, 12, and 15 bucks an hour that the self checkouts proliferate in places like Walmart and McDonald’s. Or when they mandate expensive health insurance, or workman’s comp, etc.
It’s not that humans aren’t competitive w/ machines, it’s that govt’ regulations prevent humans from working competitively w/ machines!