Center for Auto Safety Submits Comments to Department of Transportation Regarding Third Version of Voluntary Driverless Car Guidance

December 4, 2018
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Grace Garver, [email protected], (202) 328-7700 

Center for Auto Safety Submits Comments to Department of Transportation
Regarding Third Version of Voluntary Driverless Car Guidance
—Calls For Safety Requirements

Yesterday, the Center for Auto Safety (“the Center”) submitted comments to the Department of Transportation’s (“DOT”) 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 a member-supported, independent, non-profit consumer advocacy organization dedicated to improving vehicle safety, quality, and fuel economy.

“Once again, the Department of Transportation has taken an opportunity for progress and managed to accomplish a feat of regression. Instead of ‘Preparing for the Future of Transportation,’ DOT has taken a completely hands-off approach when it comes to regulating autonomous vehicle technology,” said Jason Levine, Executive Director of the Center for Auto Safety.
“As Congress pushes for a last-minute, pass-without-public-debate AV START bill that continues to fail to mandate minimum safety standards before public testing, DOT has chosen to publish a glossy brochure masquerading as a policy document. The idea of making rulemaking discretionary for this anti-regulatory, anti-oversight DOT, which not only fails to mandate safety, but actively looks to find ways to ‘unburden’ industry from even having minimal safety requirements, the message to the public is clear: you are on your own,” said Levine.
The Center’s comments advocated that DOT and NHTSA mandate a Gated Certification approach to introducing driverless cars on public roads, by which manufacturers would need to meet a required set of safety criteria before progressing through each step of a process that would culminate in public road deployment.
Levine continued: “The auto industry has demonstrated time and again that, absent meaningful oversight, it will find ways to sabotage itself in the interest of short-term profits and create long-term health and safety risks for consumers. Sadly, the modern technology industry does not have a better track record.”
The Center’s full comment can be found here.
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Over the last 48 years, the Center for Auto Safety has successfully led the fight for lemon laws in every state, airbags in every vehicle, and recall repairs being made at no cost to the consumer. The Center is a membership-driven organization headquartered in Washington, DC and is also home to the Safe Climate Campaign, which fights global warming by working for big, specific measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Center is also the publisher of www.TheCarBook.com, which has for the last 38 years been America’s most comprehensive car buying guide. To learn more about the Center, please visit www.AutoSafety.org.