US regulators issue final rules eliminating the need for automate vehicle manufacturers to equip fully autonomous vehicles with manual driving controls to meet crash standards. Automakers and tech companies have face significant hurdles to deploying automated driving system (ADS) vehicles without human controls because of safety standards written decades ago that assume people are in control.
Last month, General Motors and its self-driving technology unit Cruise petition the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for permission to build and deploy a self-driving vehicle without human controls like steering wheels or brake pedals.
The rules revise regulations that assume vehicles “will always have a driver’s seat, a steering wheel and accompanying steering column, or just one front outboard passenger seating position.”
Agency Said :
The new rules, which were first propose in March 2020, emphasise automated vehicles must provide the same levels of occupant protection as human-driven vehicles.
NHTSA Deputy Administrator Steven Cliff Said :
NHTSA’s rule says children should not occupy what is traditionally known as the “driver’s” position, given that the driver’s seating position has not been design to protect children in a crash, but if a child is in that seat, the car will not immediately be require to cease motion.
NHTSA said existing regulations do not currently bar deploying automate vehicles as long as they have manual driving controls, and as it continues to consider changing other safety standards, manufacturers may still need to petition NHTSA for an exemption to sell their ADS-equipped vehicles.