Automakers and tech companies have faced significant hurdles
to deploying automated driving system (ADS) vehicles without human controls
because of safety standards written decades ago that assume people are in
control.
Last month, General Motors and its self-driving technology
unit Cruise petitioned the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(NHTSA) for permission to build and deploy a self-driving vehicle without human
controls like steering wheels or brake pedals.
The rules revise regulations that assume vehicles "will
always have a driver's seat, a steering wheel and accompanying steering column,
or just one front outboard passenger seating position."
"For vehicles designed to be solely operated by an ADS,
manually operated driving controls are logically unnecessary," the agency
said.
The new rules, which were first proposed in March 2020,
emphasise automated vehicles must provide the same levels of occupant
protection as human-driven vehicles.
"As the driver changes from a person to a machine in
ADS-equipped vehicles, the need to keep the humans safe remains the same and
must be integrated from the beginning," said NHTSA Deputy Administrator
Steven Cliff.
NHTSA's rule says children should not occupy what is traditionally
known as the "driver's" position, given that the driver's seating
position has not been designed to protect children in a crash, but if a child
is in that seat, the car will not immediately be required to cease motion.
NHTSA said existing regulations do not currently bar
deploying automated vehicles as long as they have manual driving controls, and
as it continues to consider changing other safety standards, manufacturers may
still need to petition NHTSA for an exemption to sell their ADS-equipped
vehicles. © Reuters
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