Self-driving legislation is on the road and moving through the House. The House Energy & Commerce Committee passed a far-ranging bill on July 27. The bill is called the Safely Ensuring Lives Future Deployment and Research in Vehicle Evolution Act or the SELF DRIVE Act.
It passed the committee by a vote of 54-0 which, theoretically, means the bill will pass the full House. No companion bill has been introduced in the Senate. But the unanimous House committee vote was impressive given the enmity between Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill. The vote bodes well for the passage of some autonomous vehicle (AV) legislation this year.
Frederick Hill, spokesman for Sen. John Thune (R-SD), chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, says he doesn't know whether Thune, through whose committee a companion to the SELF DRIVE Act must move, has commented on the House bill. "There is a Senate bill in the works," Hill adds. That committee has published a summary of principles but no bill has been introduced.
The big issue for the aftermarket, the one raised by the Motor and Equipment Manufacturers Association (MEMA), is whether suppliers can also test AV components the same way auto manufacturers can test vehicles. And the House bill establishes that authority.
"The top priority for us was insuring that suppliers can test components on public roads, and the bill allows us to do that," says Tom Lehner, vice president, public policy, MEMA. The second priority, according to Lehner, was making sure there is clarification and a distinction between state and federal regulatory roles. The bill also establishes that separation.
The bill prohibits states and localities from regulating the design, construction or performance of highly autonomous vehicles, presumably levels 3-5, though the bill does not specify that. The ability for states to regulate licensing, liability and congestion management, among other areas traditionally regulated by states, is explicitly preserved.
As the House committee worked through the drafting of the bill, members of both parties recognized the importance of ensuring AVs tested and deployed are safe. The bill addresses that concern by requiring manufacturers to provide the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) with safety assessment letters based on requirements the agency would establish.
The rule establishing the standard for what letters must include would have to be published within two years of the bill's passage. But prior to that final rule, suppliers and manufacturers would have to submit safety assessment letters based on the guidelines contained in the Federal Automated Vehicles Policy issued by NHTSA in September 2016.
The legislation appears to view safety assessment letters as a temporary requirement until NHTSA takes a more thorough rulemaking stance on AV testing and safety. Democrats on the House Energy & Commerce Committee had advocated for a requirement that NHTSA establish a federal motor vehicle safety standard (FMVSS) for autonomous vehicles. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, top Democrat on the House Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection subcommittee, noted at hearings in that subcommittee in June that none of the raft of draft bills discussed that day, prior to the SELF DRIVE Act being introduced, established a requirement for a unique, AV standard.
The language in the SELF DRIVE bill says NHTSA has to establish a priority plan for a rulemaking "as necessary to accommodate the development and deployment of highly automated vehicles and to ensure the safety and security of highly automated vehicles and motor vehicles." The use of the term "as necessary" implies the NHTSA could decide an AV standard is not needed. Moreover, the term Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard is nowhere in the bill.
Another hot button issue going forward will be the House bill's expansion in the number of AVs a manufacturer can test after receiving an exemption. Those exemptions are necessary because FMVSSs require autos to have various equipment, such as a steering wheel, that AVs will not have. The current exemption ceiling is 2,500 autos annually. The House bill bumps that up to 100,000 over four years. The National Governors Association says: "Based on the scope of development and field evaluation of a new motor vehicle safety feature, we are concerned that this forty-fold increase in the exemption threshold could be excessive or present potential safety risks to the motoring public. Further, the discussion thus far has failed to make a clear distinction between testing and deployment and the appropriate exemptions for each."
It is likely that the Senate bill, expected to be introduced and debated this fall, and maybe voted on, too, will attempt to clarify some of these issues. This is a technology Congress does not want the U.S. to "lose" to another country. So expect legislation boosting AV developing to pass, if not this year, early in 2018.
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