New Vehicle Technologies

U.S. DOT Launches AV Test Initiative Last week the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) held a series of webinars to launch the start of the Automated Vehicle Transparency and Engagement for Safe Testing Initiative (AV Test Initiative). NHTSA Deputy Administrator James C. Owens stated that this is the first…

IIHS Study Finds AVs Might Not Prevent All Crashes A new study released by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) found that autonomous vehicles (AVs) would struggle to eliminate most crashes. Per IIHS, “Conventional thinking has it that self-driving vehicles could one day make crashes a thing of the past. The reality is not…

NHTSA Examines FMVSS Options for Autonomous Vehicles Today, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released a report highlighting options to work around 12 Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) that pose as barriers to deploying autonomous vehicles. Per Politico, “The report examined FMVSS regarding occupant protection, door locks, head restraints, transmission shifting and…

NHTSA Announces NPRM for ADAS The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced a notice of proposed rule making (NPRM) to “clarify the ambiguities in applying current crashworthiness standards to Automated Driving Systems (ADS) equipped vehicles without traditional manual controls, while maintaining the regulatory text’s application to more traditional vehicles and vehicles equipped with ADS…

NHTSA Issues NPRM for Occupant Protection for Automated Driving Systems The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a notice of proposed rule making (NPRM) on occupant protection for automated driving systems. Per NHTSA, the proposal aims “to modernize numerous Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and clarify ambiguities in current occupant protection standards for vehicles…

ASA and U.S. Vehicle Data Access Coalition Comments on AV Draft The Automotive Service Association (ASA), as a member of the U.S. Vehicle Data Access Coalition, submitted comments to the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Commerce Committee urging lawmakers to consider adding a vehicle data access portion to the draft autonomous…

NHTSA Extends Comment Period for ADAS Research The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is extending the comment period on the Advanced Driver Assisted Systems (ADAS) Draft Research Test Procedures Request for Comment (RFQ) to March 6, 2020. The RFQ was published on November 21, 2019 and was intended to be closed for comment on January…

U.S. DOT Requests Comments on AV Guidelines The White House and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) unveiled ‘Ensuring American Leadership in Automated Vehicle Technologies: Automated Vehicles 4.0’. The guidelines were announced in January at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, NV. This week the U.S. Department of Transportation and the White House…