Good afternoon, and thank you to everyone from this morning who stayed for this afternoon’s ADS workshop. And to those of you just joining, welcome. We’re very glad you’re here.
It’s been nearly a decade since we last held a public meeting specifically focused on automated driving systems. And we can all agree the landscape has changed drastically since then, so I’m excited that we’re all together for the next few hours to examine automated vehicle technology and safety.
Our goal with this event is to foster collaboration among you, our stakeholders, and to gather your thoughts on key topics, including Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards modernization, performance requirements, safety cases, first responder interactions, and incident reporting, among many others. We want to hear from you – your feedback will help inform our decisions as we continue to develop and implement our AV Framework.
As you heard from our experts this morning, we have many ADS and vehicle automation projects currently underway. Research plays a vital role in our regulatory process and decision-making. We hope this morning’s presentations will be incorporated into your discussions later this afternoon and welcome your feedback.
Before we get started, I’d like to speak briefly about how this Administration is approaching emerging technologies. The American automotive regulatory system, unlike that in Europe and most of the world, promotes innovation. Providing room for continued safety innovation is a hallmark of the Vehicle Safety Act and is critical to furthering safety improvements in the fleet of tomorrow.
What my goal is – what this Administration’s goal is – is to empower the innovators and private sector. We want to unleash the power of American innovation and ingenuity to solve our traffic safety issues. We encourage the development of new technologies that make vehicles safer and open up new avenues for mobility.
Vehicles equipped with ADS offer potential benefits in terms of safety and efficiency but are complex and introduce risks unique to each application.
I believe that NHTSA can no longer sit back and wait for problems to arise with such developing technologies but must demonstrate strong leadership. For automated vehicles, this means deep and sustained engagement with industry, state and local governments, and technical safety experts. That includes all of you, and it’s why we’re here today.
It also means the development and implementation of an ADS safety framework consisting of guidance and, yes, regulation. When I was here as Chief Counsel and we were evaluating how best to oversee the nascent technology, both the state of the tech and our understanding of it was insufficiently mature to think about how to regulate. Since then, thanks to work by NHTSA and external researchers and industry, we are able to start pivoting to what performance requirements may look like. In the meantime, we’ve been active.
Our AV Framework has already led to cutting red tape and removing disadvantages for domestic ADS developers. We’ve expanded our Automated Vehicle Exemption Program to include domestically produced vehicles.
We’ve also announced that we’re launching three rulemakings to modernize FMVSS standards to accommodate AVs without manual driving controls.
And finally, we’ve streamlined our Standing General Order on Crash Reporting for ADS-equipped vehicles to ensure that we’re getting the most meaningful data without creating undue burden.
We continue to work with ADS companies to enable and oversee research-based operations, and we are continually learning about testing and deployments through our current activities and interactions with ADS developers.
I am optimistic that this is the beginning of a renewed and consistent engagement with stakeholders in this space. So, when we’re all together in a few years for another ADS workshop, my hope would be that the system has enabled unharnessed competition within the United States automotive space—meeting and exceeding safety standards on the way to delivering the best vehicles the world has ever produced, and giving American families the opportunity to buy the vehicles they want and need.
I’ll also remind everyone that realizing the mobility and safety benefits from ADS-equipped vehicles depends entirely upon consumer trust, which must be rooted in safety. The technical and policy challenges surrounding these new technologies must be addressed for the future to become a reality. Failure to do so will result in products that the public will not accept, and the agency will not tolerate.
So, I appreciate your time and interest today, and I hope we’ll have a very fruitful and productive discussion over the next few hours.