By Shelia Dunn, NMA Communications Director
Transportation Secretary Elaine Chou made a big splash this week announcing a voluntary reporting mechanism for driverless car companies and states. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration calls the new program, Automated Vehicle Transparency and Engagement for Safe Testing, or AV TEST. It will be online, and anyone with a computer will be able to access the information.
Eight states and nine self-driving car developers announced they already plan to participate.
The states include California, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Utah. Notably absent is the state of Arizona, a significant test center for Uber before a fatal 2018 accident and Waymo. The nine companies include Beep, Cruise (GM), Fiat Chrysler, Local Motors, Navya, Nuro, Toyota, and Waymo.
Congress has mostly stalled any meaningful legislation regulating driverless cars. States have had to make their own up, and it is indeed a patchwork. For example, California requires companies to publically disclose all crashes involving automated vehicles, while other states do not.
Unclear at this time, whether the companies will be required to share test information with each other and the public. They will be, though, sharing routes, map data, and dates on the website.
The hope for AV TEST is to create some excitement for AVs and provide transparency on safety and testing.
Does the public even care that much? Poll after poll has shown that the majority of those surveyed do not trust AVs. How will a website make any difference?
Media skepticism has also arrived on the issue:
Car and Driver claim that the Fed’s effort is off to a slow start and the Verge.com wonders if the public will ever get any meaningful data from this effort that is using taxpayer money.
Should the DOT be spending money on trying to force folks to like driverless cars when the DOT doesn’t have enough money for highways? Seems priorities are out-of-whack.
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Here are ten other recent Auto Tech Watch stories that might be of interest:
- Self-Driving Cars May Not Be The Game Changer For Safety We Think
- US Senators Call Out NHTSA For Failure To Protect Americans From Risk Of Internet Connected Cars, Demand Answers, Says Consumer Watchdog
- Why the future of self-driving vehicles could create new forms of social inequality
- The Electric Car Battery Boom Has Screeched to a Halt, For Now
- Tesla’s Model S is the first electric car with a 400-mile range EPA rating
- Coronavirus Pandemic Paving the Way for Drone Delivery Services
- Honda Halts Output at Some Plants After Cyber Attack
- The Three Top Ways That Cyber-Hackers Will Criminally Make Money Off Of Self-Driving Cars
- New alliance formed to enhance V2X cybersecurity
- Automakers are turning your dashboard into a 24-hour digital mall
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