Self-Driving Cars Have New Rules in the U.S. Here’s Why That Matters
New rules that trim crash reporting requirements and widen testing access for U.S. robotaxis are hailed as an innovation edge and criticized for eroding safety oversight
On April 24, with a brief video and a few dozen pages, the U.S.’s driverless car rulebook got a reboot. In the video, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, appearing in a crisp jacket, invokes the Wright brothers and the Apollo moon landing and declares that “America is in the middle of an innovation race with China, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.” The new rules reduce the crash data that companies must send to regulators and seek to help U.S.-built robo taxis compete with those from foreign companies.
The order for the rule change, also dated to April 24, was released by the National Highway Transportation Security Administration (NHTSA) and will take effect on June 16. It will affect four vehicle automation levels (listed at the bottom of this article): Level 2, which requires driver intervention, and Levels 3 to 5, which use an automated driving system (ADS) that require little or no such intervention. The order preserves previous rules that manufacturers and operators using Levels 2 to 5 have five days to report crashes that involve any fatality, hospital transport, strike on a pedestrian or cyclist, or air-bag deployment. For ADS vehicles, tow-aways must also be reported within five days. Reports are still required within a month for accidents in which the vehicle strikes another vehicle, property or a stationary object (such as a guardrail) and for any incident with damage exceeding $1,000. For Level 2 systems, minor property damage incidents—including door dings, curb kisses and garden-variety fender benders—will now generally be excluded from reporting requirements. Level 2 systems, such as Tesla’s Full Self-Driving and Ford’s BlueCruise, constitute the…
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