Safety of all road users

Policymakers and the private sector must work together to increase safety for all road users, including pedestrians, cyclists, and others outside the vehicle. Federal policymakers should establish guidance to allow for innovation while protecting consumers. Regulation should be dynamic and flexible to respond to changing needs as the technology evolves. They should set minimum performance standards and outcome-oriented performance goals to achieve key AV safety targets, such as progressively decreasing fatalities and serious injuries from crashes. The private sector should innovate to meet these targets. If the federal government fails to ensure AV safety, such as by failing to set appropriate measures and goals, state and local governments should have the ability to do so. 

State and local governments should ensure the safety of those inside and outside the vehicle through traffic laws, road information, communications technology infrastructure, road design and infrastructure, engineering, and transportation planning (see also Effective Planning and Livable Communities Financing). 

Policymakers should study how best to harmonize the federal, state, and local efforts, as well as identify optimal testing that should be done and by whom. AV regulations should be coordinated among federal, state, and local governments to increase efficiency and effectiveness. 

Deployment should be limited to the conditions and speeds that have been shown to be safe through rigorous publicly reported testing, with results shared with regulators in a format that allows them to verify the data independently. Ideally, testing should be standardized. Crashworthiness standards should be updated and enforced to ensure safety. 

Partially automated vehicles (SAE levels 1-3) should incorporate driver monitoring technology to ensure that drivers are prepared to take over as needed without distraction. They should also integrate technology to make it easier for drivers to take control when needed, including providing sufficient advance warning. Federal policymakers should establish minimum performance goals for driver engagement. 

Crashes must be reported to regulators as soon as possible. Federal regulators should be able to take immediate action, without having to engage in administrative procedures, to require manufacturers to fix major vehicle safety risks that could cause serious injury or death. They should also be able to stop the sales of vehicles with such risks. This is known as having “imminent hazard authority.” 

Regulators should investigate crashes and have the authority to suspend testing programs to ensure safety.