A new road safety group targets self-driving cars
New advocacy The group is lobbying state lawmakers to pass stricter regulations for self-driving vehicles. The group, Safe Self-Driving Vehicles Everywhere in the United States (SAVE-US), says its goal is to ensure that new self-driving technology will save lives rather than cause harm. Its business has a clear target: Tesla.
the campaignwhich announced Wednesday, among its goals is to pass legislation requiring technology developers to be clearer about the limits of their driving technology; Reporting more specific and general information about crashes to the states; And use multiple sensors on their cars. In the United States, regulations governing autonomous vehicles are generally handled by states, whose laws range from strict (California) to relatively lenient (Arizona and Texas). Fourteen US states Don’t have it Laws regarding self-driving vehicles at all. The group will initially target lawmakers in large states, including Illinois, New York and New Jersey, said Chua Sanchez, the group’s national campaign director.
Sanchez and Bob Sommers, a technical advisor for SAVE-US, met this summer outside a school Administrative hearing In Oakland, California. At home, lawyers for the California Department of Motor Vehicles argued that Tesla should temporarily lose its license to manufacture and sell vehicles in the state because, they claimed, the electric automaker falsely advertised its self-driving and Autopilot driver-assistance features.
Sanchez, a physicist, has been following Tesla closely since he got involved in the Tesla Takedown movement earlier this year, where he led demonstrations outside a Boston showroom to protest CEO Elon Musk’s involvement with the government’s so-called Ministry of Efficiency. Somers has worked as an engineer at self-driving vehicle developer Zoox for half a decade. (He has since left the self-driving car industry.)
In Auckland, they agreed that autonomous vehicle technology has the potential to save lives. But rushing to use technology, or confusing customers about its limitations, is unsafe and can ruin the entire project. (An administrative judge is scheduled to decide on Tesla’s case later this year.)
“It’s fair to say that Tesla is the worst actor in this space, but that certainly doesn’t mean every other company is perfect either,” Sanchez says. “If we don’t have good regulations, we leave the door open for any company to follow an unsafe path.”