June 30, 2022 – With federal data revealing hundreds of crashes involving automated vehicle systems like Tesla’s Autopilot, Steven Cliff, the new administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said it’s time for closer scrutiny and new regulations.
“Any time we put a regulation on the books, we have to define not only what standard that technology needs to be held to, but we need to have an objective way to measure the performance of the system to ensure that it actually complies with the regulation,” said Cliff, who previously specialized in chemistry and air pollution.
While NHTSA is playing a catch-up game on automated driving systems, it is taking a microscope to Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems, with a number of investigations currently underway.