CAS comments on the DOT publication of Preparing for the Future of Transportation: Automated Vehicles 3.0

December 3, 2018
Secretary Elaine Chao
U.S. Department of Transportation 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE

Washington, DC 20590

Submitted electronically via www.regulations.gov
RE: Preparing for the Future of Transportation: Automated Vehicles 3.0, Docket
DOT-OST-2018-0149

Dear Secretary Chao:

The Center for Auto Safety (“the Center”) appreciates the opportunity to comment on the Department of Transportation’s (“DOT”) publication of Preparing for the Future of Transportation: Automated Vehicles 3.0 (“AV 3.0”), the most recent version of the DOT’s voluntary guidance regarding automated vehicles. The Center, founded in 1970, is an independent, non-profit consumer advocacy organization dedicated to improving vehicle safety, quality, and fuel economy. On behalf of our members, and all drivers, passengers, and pedestrians nationwide, the Center maintains our previous objections to the DOT’s hands-off approach to basic safety regulation of AV technology. Additionally, the Center is disappointed that AV 3.0 expands this approach beyond the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to other DOT agencies.

In order to assuage public skepticism of AV technology, it is critical for the DOT to ensure that automated vehicles, and automated vehicle technology, are safe before allowing their introduction onto public roads. The best way to accomplish this goal is a measured approach that guarantees safety prior to deployment, using the existing tools and authorities provided to the DOT and its agencies. Instead, AV 3.0 turns effective safety regulation on its head, promoting unexamined, unlicensed, unregulated, and unsafe motor vehicle operation on public roads, with no assurance that even vehicles already proven unsafe will be barred from further operation. In fact, AV 3.0 even argues that establishing standards by which vehicles can be determined unsafe somehow runs counter to the interests of safety. Unfortunately, the DOT’s continued commitment to voluntary guidance over effective regulation prevents the development of safeguards that would provide the public with basic information on the safety of AVs, and places users of American roads at the mercy of unproven technology.