Ralph Nader

Submitted

The following is a opinion piece from Ralph Nader, a consumer advocate, author of Unsafe at Any Speed (1965), and a former candidate for President of the United States.

Sen. John Thune (R-SD) is leading a reckless charge to open the floodgates for driverless cars before this nascent technology is shown to be safe. Ignoring fatal crashes involving vehicles with self-driving technology now under investigation by the National Transportation Board, Sen. Thune remains hell-bent on passing the AV START Act (S. 1885) before Congress adjourns.

This bill, written with auto and tech companies who have invested billions in this technology, allows little oversight from the U.S. Department of Transportation and offers no funding for the agency to hire experts with driverless car expertise. It’s telling that Senator Thune’s former staff director of the Senate Commerce Committee now works for the auto manufacturers aa a key lobbyist pushing for the bill.

But a number of industry voices urge caution on self-driving vehicles. Ford Motor Co. CEO Bill Ford said, “It’s really important that we get it right, rather than get it quickly.” Toyota Research Institute CEO Gill Pratt said, “Things are changing rapidly, but this will be a long journey.”

And, despite what Sen. Thune claims, S. 1885 ignores safety. This bill exempts millions of experimental self-driving vehicles from federal safety rules to be sold to the public. These exemptions include those to protect occupants in a crash, like air bags. Current federal law already allows an unlimited number of such vehicles to be tested on public roads by manufacturers, but they want to sell them now to recoup their investments, turning highway users into crash test dummies.

The bill also limits consumer information, fails to protect against catastrophic cyberattacks, ignores electronic problems and lacks requirements to assure proper “vision” by a vehicle driven by computer. This is especially reckless as experts have warned that driverless cars have trouble “seeing” in adverse weather such as fog and snow, and with unclear highway markings, lines and directional signals prevalent in rural areas that will cost billions to upgrade. Yet, Thune wants to evade debate on these deficiencies by sticking his bill on unrelated, must-pass legislation as Congress races to adjourn at the end of the year.

Sen. Thune has said, “if [autonomous vehicle] technology can save lives by making vehicles safer, why wouldn’t we pursue it?” But, there is no research showing these vehicles will be safer than human-driven cars. In fact, a mixed fleet of traditional vehicles and self-driving ones could be more dangerous.

Senator Thune espouses misleading claims and touts lofty unsubstantiated benefits for this unproven technology. He claims the legislation will “create a new safety review process at the U.S. Department of Transportation.” But the hard truth is that the bill requires no such “review” and rather it only directs driverless car manufacturers to “describe” their systems. This crafty drafting allows manufacturers to submit glossy brochures filled with marketing claims and pretty pictures devoid of real data needed to evaluate safety. More troubling , under S. 1885, new driverless car safety standards issued by the U.S. DOT must first survive APPROVAL/REVIEW BY an advisory council usually packed with industry representatives. The only recourse the U.S. DOT would have to protect against unsafe vehicles is the issuance of recalls, a DOT function the DOT Inspector General harshly criticized in a scathing report recently.

Sen. Thune also claims that S. 1885 will clarify the roles of federal and state regulators, but it would actually strip states of their ability to protect their citizens even in the absence of any federal rules. Additionally, it would prevent consumers from seeking legal remedies in court should they be harmed in a crash involving a driverless car.

Moreover, Sen. Thune baselessly claims that issuing basic safety rules will cause the U.S. to lose ground in the race to develop the car of the future. In fact, the U.S. leads the world in driverless car development. In contrast, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan and China do not permit them to be sold to the public (even if they comply with safety standards) and generally limit testing to specific locations and conditions. Including sensible measures to protect the public in S. 1885 will in no way inhibit U.S. competitiveness or the scientific advancement of driverless cars.

The Senator has countered safety concerns by saying S. 1885 is merely a “first effort” to regulate driverless cars. This subtle admission that S. 1885 is deficient also ignores the fact that relying on Congress to pass future regulatory legislation, let alone to reassure public safety, is naïve

Sen. Thune’s assurance that “safety must always be a priority” is belied by his own bill that accomplishes the opposite. S. 1885 would allow unproven and highly complex AVs to be beta tested on public roads without important safety standards. Meanwhile, safety systems such as automatic brakes that could be saving lives now continue to languish under Commerce Committee Chairman Thune. To truly make safety a priority, he should immediately put the brakes on this flawed legislation and instead press for a number of important technologies that are proven to reduce vehicle crash injuries. We don’t need any more vehicles that are unsafe at any speed.