U.S. in No Hurry to Regulate Autonomous Vehicles
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the emerging technology involved in self-driving cars is too new to be tightly regulated.
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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the emerging technology involved in self-driving cars is too new to be tightly regulated yet.
NHTSA Administrator-nominee Heidi King tells Bloomberg News the agency will maintain a hands-off approach to formal rulemaking during the current developmental stage of robotic-car technology. But she says NHTSA is open “each and every day” to acting “when the time is right.”
King tells Bloomberg the agency can control dangers that emerge from real-world tests of autonomous vehicles by applying its existing defect investigation and other enforcement tools. In the meantime, she adds, drunk driving and a lack of seatbelt usage pose far greater threats to traffic deaths and injuries.
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