Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/678459
16 commercial carrier journal | may 2016 JOURNAL NEWS Watchdog group wants strict autonomous driving guidelines A dvocacy group Consumer Watchdog called on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to require a steering wheel, brake and accelerator in all autonomous vehicles so a human driver can take control of a self-driving vehicle when necessary. The group asked NHTSA to place these requirements in the guidelines the agency is developing on automated vehicle technology. To-date, all of the experimental autonomous truck tech- nologies being tested on the market have included each. "Deploying a vehicle today without a steering wheel, brake, accelerator and a human driver capable of inter- vening when something goes wrong is not merely foolhardy, it is danger- ous," said John Simpson, Consumer Watchdog's Privacy Project director. "NHTSA's autonomous vehicle guide- lines must reflect this fact." Simpson's concerns target the self- driving car program piloted by Google, which he claims is pressuring NHTSA to fast-track an approval process for auton- omous vehicles that would bypass usual rulemaking proceedings and Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. "Google, which logged 424,331 self- driving miles over the 15-month report- ing period, said a human driver took over 341 times, an average of 22.7 times a month," Simpson said. "The robot car technology failed 272 times and ceded control to the human driver. The driver felt compelled to intervene and take control 69 times." Under California requirements, com- panies testing autonomous technolo- gies are required to file disengagement reports with detailed explanations when a test driver took control of a vehicle operating in autonomous mode. The reports show vehicles are not always capable of "seeing" pedestri- ans, cyclists, traffic lights, low-hanging branches or the proximity of parked cars, and also are not capable of reacting to reckless behavior from other drivers. – Jason Cannon Full satellite TV access to premium and 100+ other channels. With EpicVue inMotion, resting team drivers can enjoy their favorite shows on the go. GET YOUR FLEET ON BOARD TODAY 844-EPICVUE (374-2883) | www.epicvue.com Where home rides with you. Untitled-41 1 1/21/16 12:54 PM Consumer Watchdog asked NHTSA to re- quire a steering wheel, brake and accelera- tor in all autonomous vehicles so a human driver can take control when necessary.