The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)Regulatory framework for self-driving car evaluation (AV STEP) will allow more self-driving vehicles equipped with automated driving systems to be on the road and simplify the exemption application process, but the condition is that vehicle manufacturers must provide more data and increase technical transparency to gain public trust.
The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) currently in the United States require all vehicles on the road to be equipped with steering wheels, pedal controls, and rearview mirrors. However, current self-driving vehicles, which do not require human intervention, are mostly no longer equipped with such equipment. Therefore, if vehicle manufacturers want to legally drive their self-driving cars on the road, in addition to adjusting the relevant designs, they must apply for exemptions from the U.S. federal government. However, only a maximum of 2500 exemptions can be applied for each year, which may impose certain restrictions on the development of self-driving technology.
The self-driving car assessment and regulatory framework will allow the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to allow more self-driving cars that break away from traditional vehicle designs to legally drive on the road, relax the number of exemption applications each year, and simplify the exemption application process, allowing more self-driving car designs to develop faster.
However, vehicle manufacturers must provide more data to increase the transparency of their technology and thereby increase public trust in self-driving cars.
Currently, the development of self-driving car applications in the United States mainly relies on the independent regulation of state governments. In the past, there has been no unified self-driving car regulation method for the whole country, and even no consensus has been reached for seven years. The reason is that different regions have different views on safety, liability, exemptions and standards.
However, many people are concerned that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's relaxation of regulations may lead to more safety concerns. They believe that when the safety of autonomous driving technology cannot be ensured at present, allowing more self-driving cars on the road and relaxing exemption programs may create risks.
