Google parent Alphabet Inc’s self-driving car unit Waymo emphasized on prompt removal of hurdles in the way of self-driving cars urging the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on Thursday to ease the regulatory requirements for the same.
Current procedure demands autonomous vehicle maker to comply with about 75 standards related to auto safety and most of them implies assuming that a licensed driver would be controlling the vehicle using traditional controls like steering wheels and brake pedals.
For more than a time span of three years, NHTSA has been tackling with on how to ensure compliance of auto safety standards for those vehicles. On the other hand, last week filing from major autonomous vehicle maker highlighted the complexity of the procedures related to testing, acquisition and evaluation of fully autonomous vehicles.
In order to remove uncalled for regulatory requirements to introduce safer automated driving system, NHTSA in May sought public comments and on Thursday, in its letter posted to the auto safety agency, Waymo asked the agency for prompt removal of procedural barriers while ensuring safety.
Waymo urging the agency to first address those safety standards that are made assuming a human presence behind the steering wheel before making any revisions in regulations related to alternative seating configurations, added that these steps by NHTSA would enable automakers to timely deploy vehicles having no manual controls.
NHTSA should keep continue dialogues around this critical matter but with a sense of urgency to keep the pace of regulatory evolution up with the advancement of technology, said General Motor Co in its comments.
In their separate comments to the agency, Honda Motor Co and Lyft Inc suggested that NHTSA, in order to address the rules written in assumption of human presence inside the vehicle, could recognize the self-driving cars as a separate vehicle class.
