Group forms to make recommendations on autonomous cars

Group forms to make recommendations on autonomous cars

Securing Americaês Future Energy (SAFE) has created a Commission on Autonomous Vehicle Testing and Safety. The Commission will study and recommend best practices for industry and others for early deployment of autonomous vehicles in real-world situations.

–The transportation system in its current form exerts an inexorable toll on society in the form of both oil dependence and traffic fatalities,” said SAFE, a nonpartisan group formed to reduce Americaês dependence on oil. The organization said that experts believe up to 90 percent of crashes will be eliminated by autonomous technology, but recent polling shows that only 35 percent of Americans are aware that autonomous vehicles will save lives.

The Commission includes members from the National Transportation Safety Board, NIH, General Motors and SAE, among others.

The Department of Transportation is expected to issue guidelines on autonomous vehicles in the next few months. Automakers are anxious to avoid the patchwork of state laws that is already starting to form.