Automated driving meets regulation: NHTSA and the next 50 years

The challenges and opportunities on the road to “zero deaths” demand a new level of federal automotive safety technical standards, and a new safety-defect reporting and recall system. NHTSA and the U.S. Congress must act boldly and quickly to make it happen.

Editor's note: This article is based on a longer technical paper (2016-01-7000) by the authors and published by SAE International in April. It can be accessed here: http://papers.sae.org/2016-01-7000/.

NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind recently spoke on the prospects for reaching zero deaths on America's roads. “Conceptually, the challenge is extremely straightforward. If we keep doing what we are doing, we are never going to get there,” he said. “We've got to keep doing what we've been doing- it's been successful-but we've got to do more.”