Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, the role AI is playing in it. To get this in your inbox, sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! One of the stickier problems for autonomous vehicle developers, regulators, and the public is determining when self-driving technology is safe enough for the road.
So far, that question has largely fallen to industry to answer — companies that are applying their autonomous vehicle technology to self-driving trucks, robotaxis, and maybe someday personally owned passenger vehicles. Today, there is no standardized test for judging how well an automated driving system performs in the real world. We require people to pass a driver’s test before getting a license, but there isn’t an equivalent test or system for autonomous vehicle technology.
So how do we know whether an AV is a safe driver? The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it’s working on an answer. Federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSS) already govern the vehicle automakers sell today.
But those FMVSS rules weren’t designed for vehicles like the Tesla Cybercab and Zoox robotaxi, which lack traditional, and federally required, equipment like pedals, steering wheels, and design features like side mirrors and rearview mirrors. The NHTSA is working on a federal automated vehicle framework that it says will put safety at the foundation without stifling innovation, or as Administrator Jonathan Morrison put it this week, force the agency to play “whack-a-mole” with policy decisions or try to predict how the technology will evolve. That’s a tricky recipe to get right.
The agency took a notable step toward that goal this week by reaching an agreement with SAE to launch ASCEND, a government-industry initiative aimed at speeding up the development of data-driven AV performance standards. By delivering an AV competency standard, we hope we’ll be able to address the burgeoning past patchwork of inconsistent state and local level requirements, and continue to encourage American innovation and promote the safe deployment and development of these vehicles on the road.” There is no timeline yet for when this consortium will produce ADS standards. But I bet the AV industry is already weighing in.
Note: Want to hear Morrison’s complete comments? Check out this video of the AI Horizons Summit, and fast-forward to the 04:36:00 mark. We have a few things cookin’ but nothing quite ready to share.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
