Federal autonomous vehicle guidelines will offer guidance only
The U.S. Department of Transportation is expected to offer autonomous vehicle guidelines this summer. But they will be just that guidelines, not formal regulations, according to reports of a briefing by Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. The guidelines will not go through the rulemaking process.
Automakersê main concern is avoiding a patchwork of state laws, as several states have already started to pass their own laws. For instance, autonomous vehicles are allowed to drive on public roads in DC. The federal guidelines will likely indicate which questions should be governed by uniform federal rules and which should be left to the states, according to The Hill.
Recent reports of two crashes by Teslaês Model X have raised concerns about the safety of the current generation of autonomous cars and put more pressure on DOT to write appropriate guidelines for the technology.
DOT has indicated it will issue a formal rule this year requiring all new models to be capable of vehicle-to-vehicle communication, a necessary step on the path to driverless cars.
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