The Trump administration has asked automakers to submit voluntary safety assessments of their autonomous vehicle (AV) program, saying it does not have the authority to require them. Only three companies – General Motors, Ford and Waymo, connected with Google – have done so, according to the Detroit News.
Critics say the papers filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) do not show rigorous testing. GM and Ford said that each of their test AVs has two humans as backups to the autonomous controls. Waymo said that it has done “extensive testing” and that its AVs are designed to be driven “without a human driver.”
The U.S. Congress is working on bills that would regulate AVs. A Senate bill would require automakers to submit a safety assessment of their AVs within 90 days of the bill’s passage. The House bill would require the Department of Transportation to write a mandate requiring safety assessments within two years of the bill’s passage.