CUE THE CRICKETS

By Tanya Snyder and Lauren Gardner, POLITICO MORNING TRANSPORTATION

January 5, 2018

In the revised policy framework for self-driving cars DOT released last fall, DOT Secretary Elaine Chao made clear that the voluntary safety self-assessments for automakers were indeed voluntary, and that in fact they shouldn’t be submitted to NHTSA at all, but rather simply published by the automaker itself. What’s happened since? Only one developer, Waymo, has published one. That’s a sign the agency’s standards have failed, Consumer Watchdog said Thursday in a press release. Without enforceable safety rules, the group argued, autonomous vehicle developers are using public highways as “private laboratories” to test their wares. “In effect, we are their human guinea pigs and there is no federal regulation to ensure our safety,” said John Simpson, Consumer Watchdog’s privacy and technology project director.