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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday July 20 2017, @10:09PM   Printer-friendly
from the patchwork-quagmire dept.

Reuters has published that

A U.S. House panel on Wednesday approved a sweeping proposal by voice vote to allow automakers to deploy up to 100,000 self-driving vehicles without meeting existing auto safety standards and bar states from imposing driverless car rules.

Representative Robert Latta, a Republican who heads the Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee overseeing consumer protection, said he would continue to consider changes before the full committee votes on the measure, expected next week. The full U.S. House of Representatives will not take up the bill until it reconvenes in September after the summer recess.

The measure, which would be the first significant federal legislation aimed at speeding self-driving cars to market, would require automakers to submit safety assessment reports to U.S. regulators, but would not require pre-market approval of advanced vehicle technologies.

Automakers would have to show self-driving cars "function as intended and contain fail safe features" to get exemptions from safety standards but the Transportation Department could not "condition deployment or testing of highly automated vehicles on review of safety assessment certifications," the draft measure unveiled late Monday said.

[...] States could still set rules on registration, licensing, liability, insurance and safety inspections, but could not set self-driving car performance standards, under the proposal.

[...] Auto dealers want the final bill to clarify that the measure would not preempt state dealer franchise laws that generally bar automakers from selling vehicles directly to consumers.

I can understand why an autonomous test vehicle doesn't need seat belts but is taking away the ability of a state to regulate this new technology a good idea? What do you think?


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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday July 21 2017, @06:02AM (1 child)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday July 21 2017, @06:02AM (#542222) Journal

    but that doesn't mean the federal government can stop states from crafting their own rules regarding cars within the state.

    It does mean that federal law overrides state law when the two are in conflict.

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 21 2017, @08:06AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 21 2017, @08:06AM (#542267)

    Only if the federal law is actually constitutional.