A new bill is being written with input from both the House and Senate in the hopes of speeding the introduction of self driving vehicles on the roads.
Similar legislation last year (the SELF DRIVE Act in the House and the 'AV START Act' in the Senate) failed to pass even though amended repeatedly in response to Democrat
raised objections that it didn’t do enough to address safety concerns. The hope is that with Democrats now in control of the House, a bill can be crafted from the start that addresses those concerns.
The new bipartisan legislation will also address
what these vehicles look like in the future, allowing for automakers to manufacture vehicles without steering wheels, gas, and brake pedals so long as the Department of Transportation exempts them from the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS).
Movement on this front was unexpected considering that
the AV industry has mostly dialed down its efforts in Washington. According to Politico, lobbying on driverless cars dropped 35 percent between the end of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019.
Perhaps due to focusing on technical challenges.
(Score: 2) by Coward, Anonymous on Monday July 29 2019, @06:53PM
Federal jurisdiction only goes so far, and big trucks are prohibited on many local roads. Sure, the feds can try to over reach. But the fact that this didn't become law indicates that federal power has political limits. Even if it did pass, the Supreme Court would probably also get to review it at some point.