Regulation would replace 2015 voluntary agreement.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) on June 11 announced the Department’s portions of the Unified Agenda (also known as the Spring Regulatory Agenda) identifying the actions the Department plans to take over the next year and beyond.
The portion of the regulatory agenda addressing roadway safety proposes to make safety technologies like automatic emergency braking (AEB) standard, to ensure better data collection for autonomous vehicle technology deployments to enable safe innovation, and to update our roadway design and operational practices for the first time in a decade.
In 2015, USDOT National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and 10 vehicle manufacturers announced a voluntary agreement to make AEB with forward collision warning (FCW) standard on virtually all light-duty cars and trucks with a gross vehicle weight of 8,500 pounds or less beginning no later than Sept. 1, 2022. Another 10 vehicle manufacturers joined the voluntary agreement in March 2016.
In December, CollisionWeek reported that 10 vehicle manufacturers had already met the 2022 target ahead of schedule, though several lagged behind.
Safety advocates and consumer groups have complained that the voluntary agreement shouldn’t take the place of safety regulations.
Examples include:
- Require heavy and light vehicles to include Automatic Emergency Braking (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration – NHTSA)
- Revise the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways (Federal Highway Administration – FHWA)
- Establish and require rigorous testing standards for autonomous vehicles and establish a national incident database for crashes involving automated vehicles (NHTSA)
- Create a safe, predictable environment for autonomous vehicle evolution (NHTSA)
The regulatory agenda also seeks to support the Biden Administration’s goal of reducing climate changing emissions by at least 50 percent by 2030 by setting fuel economy standards for light-duty vehicles (NHTSA) and re-establishing a Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Performance Measure for state and metropolitan planning.
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