Autonomous Vehicles

Statement on New Truck Safety Technology Poll

 150 150 Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety

Today, a new poll commissioned by Road Safe America revealed that Americans overwhelmingly support Congress requiring the use of speed limiters and automatic emergency braking (AEB) on large trucks.  This clarion call for proven safety technology is warranted considering the skyrocketing number of fatal truck crashes on our roads. We urge Congress to listen to the telling results of this survey and take action now to require proven truck safety technologies on our roadways.

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Advocates’ Statement on Waymo’s 10 Million Miles Driven

 150 150 Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety

Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety (Advocates) has a long history of championing proven safety technology, from airbags in the 1990s to advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) today.  We commend Waymo for reaching 10 million miles of testing on public roads.  However, this pales in comparison to the more than three trillion miles traveled by human drivers on U.S. roads each year.  Many more miles and milestones must be reached before driverless cars are sold to the public, which is precisely what a bill under consideration in the U.S. Senate will allow, AV START Act (S. 1885).

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Advocates’ Statement on U.S. DOT 3.0 AV Guidelines

 150 150 Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety

Today the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) released weak, voluntary guidelines allowing manufacturers of autonomous vehicles (AVs) to use our Nation’s roads and highways as proving grounds for unproven technology.  Instead of being called “3.0” guidelines, they should be considered “-1.0” guidelines because they throw our Nation’s AV policy in reverse.  AV manufacturers will continue to introduce extremely complex, supercomputers-on-wheels into the driving environment with meager government oversight and accountability.

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Advocates’ Statement on Emerging Technologies to the Senate Commerce Committee

 150 150 Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety

AVs should not be prematurely deployed and sold before they can be safely operated on public roads and without commonsense government oversight in place.  Serious and fatal crashes involving AVs which have already occurred reveal significant flaws in this still developing technology.  In sum, the path to the safe and effective introduction of AVs requires government oversight, transparency and a comprehensive regulatory framework in all aspects from vehicle standards to infrastructure design.  

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