The Senate is planning to craft legislation aimed to facilitate the development of autonomous vehicle technology. Notably, the US Congress was also apprised by the Executives from leading automaker of the problems being faced by them in path developing and testing self driving cars.
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) have announced that are mulling over the ideas to clear the impediments in the path of self-driving car manufacturers.
There is a dearth significant federal laws governing the development and operation of self-driving vehicles, which has created an atmosphere of ambiguity as different states come up with regulation with much variation that creates hurdles in the path of automakers involved in developing such technologies.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently had released voluntary guidelines, a 15-point safety assessment for automakers expecting that it would bring some uniformity and smoothen the process . But it is being said there is still a lack of clarity.
Both the lawmakers will be discussing on the existing patchwork of laws and regulations and the traditional roles of federal and state regulators. However, their main focus would be on improving regulatory flexibility for self-driving cars without changing regulations that impact conventional automobiles. They, along with the Transportation Committee, would craft self-driving car regulations that would remove hurdles and help in the development of self-driving vehicles. There has been a lot of speculations regarding the provisions of the bill and its impact on the industry but the things will be clear only when the bill is tabled.
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