NHTSA announces next step in AV framework, to prioritize safety, innovation

The NHTSA announced the next step in its new Automated Vehicle Framework to prioritize safety, unleash innovation, and enable commercial deployment. To facilitate automated driving systems technology reaching its full potential to transform roadway safety, NHTSA is streamlining its exemption process for commercial deployment of vehicles and adopting a dynamic and flexible approach to evaluating these exemptions. These improvements will allow NHTSA to process ADS and other exemptions more quickly while also allowing NHTSA to prioritize safety through a tailored and progressive operational oversight approach, the agency said. NHTSA will be publishing enhanced application instructions that are intended to help manufacturers better understand the application requirements in Part 555 and to provide guidance to manufacturers about the information that will be most helpful to the agency when evaluating their application. This guidance will help streamline the process by reducing the need for NHTSA to request additional information from the manufacturer. NHTSA will be adopting a more dynamic and flexible approach to evaluating and overseeing exemptions for ADS-equipped vehicles. Applying a static set of conditions to a dynamic technology creates technical and oversight challenges that have prolonged past reviews of applications involving ADS. NHTSA intends to develop terms that could be included in Part 555 exemption grants, when appropriate, to condition operations of exempted ADS-equipped vehicles on enhanced and continuing oversight from NHTSA. NHTSA would expect to administer this enhanced oversight through letters, which could be updated over time, mirroring real-world ADS development. Publicly traded companies in the industry include Tesla (TSLA), GM (GM), Uber (UBER), Waymo (GOOGL), Baidu (BIDU), and Ford (F).