Regulations Prepping for Automated Driving

AUVSI photo.

By Danielle Lucey



Speakers on the final day of the Automated Vehicle Symposium discussed how their agencies were preparing for regulating the automated vehicle industry when there are still so many factors left to be determined. 



Kevin Dopart, program manager for Connected Vehicle Safety and Automation at the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office, housed under the U.S. Department of Transportation, said connected vehicles are a priority for his agency through the next year, and he anticipates that autonomy will be involved in its impending plans. 



However, he stressed that it is an uncertain time for federal funding and budgets, so what is actually possible in the imminent future might be limited. 



“We do not yet have an approved ITS strategic plan, and given the budget uncertainties, we have not yet approved an automated five-year plan that we can release in public,” he said. Assuming further funding, Dopart said he hopes to have something he can share by the ITS World Congress in September. 



The agency is planning studying levels two, three and four of automation as defined by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.



“We’ve continued to collaborate with other federal agencies … and our international groups,” he said. “We’re looking for lots of opportunities to share results going forward and coordinating our research down the line.”



Nat Beuse, the associate administrator for NHTSA, was on hand to discuss how automation plays into the agency’s central goal of improving safety. 



“The bottom line is crashes are happening, and they are happening a lot, and people are dying, and they are dying a lot,” he said. A number of additional safety features that the agency planned will be coming to market in the near future, but he anticipates that, though safety numbers are improving, they will eventually level out. But automation could push the accident and fatality numbers down further. 



“One of the ways to address driver behavior is with technology,” he said. “We see our role to find those widgets, those technologies that help on the safety side.”



Beuse cautioned against getting caught up in NHTSA or SAE automation levels, which are not exclusive of each other, because they were intentioned to simply allow engineers to discuss automation using common definitions. 



“On levels zero and one, here NHTSA has a lot of activity going on,” Beuse said. “Again our focus is how to get the safety numbers down. … For us, these two levels are where we are now today with modern vehicles.”



Future interim steps to gaining more autonomy will include research on connected vehicle technology. In February, NHTSA said it would pursue a notice of proposed rulemaking on connected vehicles, which is currently being held up in the regulatory process in the Office of Management and Budget. After it is cleared, there will be a 60-day comment period.



An imminent change in regulation is due in California. The state’s Department of Motor Vehicles has been tasked by its legislature to have requirements for testing and operating automated vehicles in place by the beginning of 2015. 



Bernard Soriano, deputy director for the California DMV, said the state has already set up some of its requirements, which are going into effect in September, and now is working on the process of gaining operator requirements. 



Automated vehicles tested in the state of California must have $5 million in insurance and bonds or be self-insured. Manufacturers need to use operators that have no DUIs over the past 10 years, have not been an at-fault driver in a collision for the past three years and have no more than one point on his license as defined by California. The drivers must be employees, contractors or designees of the manufacturer of the vehicle, and manufacturers must report any accidents with in 10 days to the DMV.



The state will only approve a passenger vehicle and explicitly excludes commercial vehicles, semi-trucks, vehicles over 10,000 pounds and motorcycles.



For the second set of regulations, the DMV is working with the California Partners for Advanced Transportation through the University of California Berkeley. The DMV anticipates it will open up a 45-day comment period on them in either late July or early August. 



“It all centered around the definition of an operator,” he said.



The DMV’s proposal includes an application process for all manufacturers wishing to test level four vehicles, which will need to go through a 180-day approval process, and they will need to disclose where they plan on testing. Level four vehicles will also have a special license plate so other drivers and pedestrians are aware that it is a highly autonomous system. 



“Lastly, we debated this over and over again, and we came to the conclusion that we will not be issuing a special driver’s license or a special operating license for people that operate these vehicles on our roadways,” Soriano said. He noted earlier though that the DMV’s law enforcement personnel was “very interested” in determining who gets a ticket in these vehicles. 



The DMV will have to respond to each comment it gets. Then it will put the new proposal up for a second comment period.