Regulation of the era of self-driving cars has begun | McClatchy Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON Vowing to build a “safety culture … that will stand the test of time,” Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx on Wednesday unveiled a new federal policy framework for regulating the rapidly emerging era of self-driving vehicles.

Foxx said his department was delivering “the most comprehensive automated vehicle policy that the world has ever seen … taking us from the horseless carriage to the driverless car.”

“Automated vehicles have the potential to save thousands of lives, driving the single biggest leap in road safety that our country has ever taken,” he said.

Last year, more than 32,000 people died in traffic accidents on U.S. roadways, an increase of more than 7 percent the previous year. Of those, more than 10,000 of the deaths occurred in crashes involving drunk drivers.

Uber, an alternative taxi service, is already experimenting with a driverless car in a 12-square-mile section of Pittsburgh, with a human at the wheel in case a risky situation develops. Excitement over the new technology was somewhat dampened months ago when a Tesla autonomous car was involved in a fatal crash.

At a news conference outside the Transportation Department, Foxx and Mark Rosekind, the nation’s highway safety chief, described a framework that Tesla, Google, Uber and U.S. automakers will be expected to honor as they develop and manufacture automated vehicle technologies.

Foxx, a former Charlotte mayor, said his department would convert the framework to a formal federal rule over the coming months so that manufacturers won’t have to contend with a varied patchwork of state laws. For example, the federal guidelines don’t require the presence of a licensed driver in an autonomous vehicle, while California regulators have moved to impose such a requirement.

The rule, however, will be treated as “a living document” and will be reviewed annually to see what changes are needed Foxx said.

He was asked whether the guidelines would require autonomous cars to have steering wheels and brake pedals.

Foxx noted that federal motor vehicle safety standards currently require a steering wheel, but said the framework leaves the issue of whether they should be required in self-driving vehicles among issues that need to be resolved.

The framework puts regulation under federal jurisdiction when the vehicles are operating autonomously, but under state authority if a driver takes control, Foxx said.

The National Highway Safety Administration has already issued a bulletin advising automakers that it intends to regulate autonomous vehicles.

The framework includes a 15-point “safety assessment” for the design, development, testing and deployment of self-driving vehicles. It also includes a model state policy that presents a clear distinction between federal and state regulatory duties.

Rosekind, the Highway Safety Administration’s administrator, said “94 percent of crashes on U.S. roadways are caused by a human error or choice” and automated vehicle technologies offer “enormous promise” in averting those fatalities.

Among others appearing at the news conference was Colleen Sheehey-Church, national president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, whose 18-year-old son, Dustin, died when when a drunk teenager drove a car in which he was a passenger into a river.

“A self-driving car can’t get drunk,” she said. “A self-driving car can’t get distracted. And a self-driving car will follow the traffic laws and prioritize safety for pedestrians and bicyclists.”

Henry Claypool, the wheelchair-bound director of the Community Living Policy Center at the University of California-San Francisco, called the Transportation Department’s assertion of its authority a “critically important step” to prevent states from adopting laws and policies that discriminate against the handicapped.

Autonomous cars, he said, could open a world of travel opportunities for the blind and disabled and for “an older person worried about being able to see as day turns into night.”

Another plus, said retired Marines Corps Commandant James Conway, is that the mostly electric vehicles being developed don’t run on oil, which could help America finally wean itself from reliance on foreign oil.

Fox called his department’s approach “revolutionary.”

“Traditionally, we tend to handle safety issues like referees at a game, and we can only throw the flag after an infraction has occurred,” he said. “What we’re doing here is building safety at the ground floor.”