The Trump administration is reportedly revising Obama-era guidelines for driverless vehicles.
Updated
guidance on the emerging technology is expected to be released in the
next few months, said Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, according to
multiple reports.
"The pressure is mounting for the federal
government to do something," Chao said during a conference in Detroit on
Monday, according to
Reuters.
The
new guidance will focus on spurring industry innovation and encouraging
"new entrants and ideas that deliver safer vehicles,” Chao added. But
she also emphasized that the agency would not rush to draft binding
regulations on self-driving cars.
“Too quick of movement toward rules may not be sustainable in the long term,” Chao said, according to
Bloomberg. “We don’t want to have rules that may impede future advances.”
The
administration has been re-evaluating the flexible, voluntary
guidelines for autonomous vehicles that were released last fall.
The
framework includes a 15-point safety assessment for automakers that is
meant to be subjected to the formal rulemaking process. The guidelines
also include model policy for states in an effort to avoid a messy
patchwork of regulations across the country.
The industry has
searched for clues about how Trump will approach autonomous vehicle
regulations, with some expecting his administration to have a lighter
touch.
Most industry representatives have called the driverless
car guidelines a good first step, but think some improvements could be
made.
Driverless car developers have raised concern that states
are trying to make the voluntary safety checklist mandatory, while
others have taken issue with being asked to share significant data about
their technology.
The industry has also urged policymakers to
ease certain safety standards that don’t apply to traditional
automobiles, which they say could hamper innovation and testing.
But
Chao said Silicon Valley needs to “step up” and be more forthcoming
with information about self-driving cars in an effort to better educate
both the government and public about the emerging technology.
“A
lot of the technology comes from Silicon Valley,” Chao said, according
to Bloomberg. “They have a responsibility to educate the rest of the
American public on the technologies they’re thinking about, technologies
which are miles and miles ahead of most people’s understanding.”