The Commission on Autonomous Vehicle Testing and Safety’s report provides industry and regulators with recommendations to address public policy and safety issues that have the potential to slow or halt deployment of autonomous vehicles (AVs). In light of the significant regulatory challenges facing this rapidly-evolving industry, the Commission presents a number of best-practice recommendations to foster increased collaboration between industry and regulators, and ultimately improve public confidence in AV technology.
Chaired by Major General Mark Rosenker, U.S. Air Force (Ret.), Former Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, the Commission is a committed group of former public officials and safety experts who bring decades of expertise towards their collective goal of improving the safety of early AV deployment, thus expediting the widespread adoption of AV technology. Their recommendations address the potential risks of public opposition and overregulation.
Highlighted Recommendations:
Recommendations Designed to Improve Public Confidence
- The Commission recommends that AV providers move to on road testing and deployment only once confident that the vehicle’s performance is as safe as the average human driver, accounting for backup drivers, speed restrictions, geofencing and other safety measures.
- The Commission encourages AV providers to create safety milestones for AV development. The Commission further encourages public disclosure of achieved milestones and accompanying validation.
- The Commission encourages developers to deploy redundant layers of technology to increase safety beyond any minimum required standard.
- The Commission encourages developers to clearly define and effectively communicate autonomous features, including their limitations.
Recommended Steps Toward an Industry-Driven Regulatory Framework
- The Commission encourages AV providers to formally collaborate through a technical data consortium to accelerate AV learning and safety through shared, anonymized information.
- The Commission recommends that industry formulate objective, practical, quantitative metrics for measuring AV safety.
- The Commission recommends that any future framework for regulating AVs rest on a modern foundation reflecting the advanced software-driven nature of vehicle automation.
The members of the Commission on Autonomous Vehicle Testing and Safety are:
- Major General Mark Rosenker, U.S. Air Force (Ret.), Former Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board; Commission Chairman
- Admiral Dennis C. Blair, U.S. Navy (Ret.), Former Director of National Intelligence; Former Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Command
- Paul Brubaker, President and Chief Executive Officer, Alliance for Transportation Innovation
- Robert Lange, Principal and Corporate Vice President, Exponent; Former Executive Director, Product Safety, General Motors
- Cuneyt Oge, President, SAE International
