SANTA MONICA, Calif.,
Aug. 21, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/
-- Consumer Watchdog today backed a proposed city ordinance
that would ban self-driving robot cars from the streets of
Chicago unless the federal
government enacts enforceable safety standards for autonomous
vehicles.
The nonpartisan, nonprofit public interest group added that
testing autonomous vehicles would be appropriate if adequate
safeguards were in place, including a trained human test driver
behind a steering wheel and brake pedal.
In written testimony given to a joint hearing by the City
Council's Committee on Finance and Committee on Transportation
& Public Way, Consumer Watchdog Privacy Project Director
John M. Simpson said:
"Consumer Watchdog agrees that so long as the federal government
fails in its responsibility to protect all drivers, cyclists and
pedestrians by setting appropriate Federal Motor Vehicle Safety
Standards (FMVSS), the Chicago City Council should ban autonomous
vehicles – robot cars – from being generally deployed on your
streets."
Read Consumer Watchdog's testimony here:
http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/resources/chicagotestimony082117.pdf
Read the Chicago City Council Ordinance:
http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/resources/chicagoavordinance082117.pdf
"No government authority is more familiar with the conditions
and challenges posed by local road conditions and traffic patterns
than municipal government. Chicago knows its unique road conditions and
there is no better entity to deal with its challenges than City
Council," Simpson said. "While policymakers in Washington DC should – in fact, must – set
nationwide safety standards for autonomous vehicles, they are in no
position deal with their deployment on your city's roads.
Council can best determine areas that pose special dangers, such as
school zones and highways under construction; Washington bureaucrats cannot."
Consumer Watchdog said that with appropriate safeguards and
oversight, including full transparency about testing companies'
activities, testing of autonomous vehicles in Chicago could be allowed.
"If self-driving car companies want to use Chicago's public streets as their private
laboratories, then they have a responsibility to be completely
transparent about what they are doing and to test according to
rules that City Council sets," Simpson said.
Chicago's testing regulations
should include these provisions, Consumer Watchdog said:
- A self-driving vehicle being tested must have a permit from the
city.
- The robot car being tested must have a trained test driver,
behind a steering wheel and brake pedal capable of assuming control
should that become necessary.
- The testing company should be required to file public reports
about any crashes.
- The testing company should file public "disengagement reports"
explaining instances when the robot technology failed and the test
driver had to take control.
These provisions are similar to what's required under
California's current testing
regulations, Consumer Watchdog said. The regulations have not
proved burdensome, nor hampered innovation; 37 companies have
obtained permits from the Department of Motor Vehicles to test
their robot vehicles in the state.
Consumer Watchdog said that as Chicago City Council formulates
autonomous vehicle regulations, it's important that the Council
understand the current state of autonomous vehicle technology.
California's most recent
disengagement reports are an excellent barometer.
Disengagement reports from companies testing robot cars on
California's public roads released
last February by the DMV show the technology is not ready to be
deployed without human drivers behind a steering wheel who can take
control when the self-driving technology fails, Consumer Watchdog
said.
For example, the report from Waymo, the new name of Google's
autonomous vehicle unit, demonstrates the shortcomings, the group
said. Waymo's report showed the robot cars had problems dealing
with others on the road, construction zones, and correctly
perceiving their surroundings. In the past the company has said,
for example, that its robot cars had difficulty correctly
perceiving overhanging branches. There were also software glitches
and times when the test driver took over because the robot car made
an unwanted maneuver.
Waymo/Google's robot cars logged 635,868 miles on California's roads in self-driving mode during
the 2016 reporting period, substantially more than any other
company testing in the state. That compares with 414,331
miles in the 2015 reporting period. Waymo/Google said
disengagements declined from 341 to 124, or 0.8 per 1,000 miles
compared to 0.2 per 1,000 miles. Most of the disengagements – 112 –
came on local streets, not highways or freeways.
View the most recent California
disengagement reports here:
https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/vr/autonomous/disengagement_report_2016
"City Council should understand what is happening – or perhaps
better said what is not happening – with autonomous vehicle safety
regulation at the national level," Simpson said. "Rather than
create the necessary regulations that would protect safety on our
highways, Congress is rushing legislation that would leave a
regulatory void without meaningful safety protections."
Consumer Watchdog's testimony concluded:
"Chicago must not succumb to
the siren song of the autonomous car developers who are over
promising what autonomous vehicle technology can do today.
You should act to protect your citizens and ban the general
deployment of autonomous vehicles from Chicago's streets until enforceable FMVSS
covering autonomous vehicles are in place We call on
you to push for the development of enforceable federal safety
performance standards. Consumer Watchdog believes
Chicago can safely issue permits
and allow testing of autonomous vehicles, so long as there is a
test driver who can take over and there is complete transparency
about the test programs. Responsible regulation goes hand-in-hand
with innovation. Voluntary 'standards' in the auto industry have
repeatedly been proven to be weak and insufficient. Safety
must come before the automakers' bottom lines. Consumer Watchdog
calls on you to block the deployment of AVs until NHTSA enacts the
necessary regulations to protect the safety of our highways and
Congress gives the agency the necessary resources to do so."
Visit our website at www.consumerwatchdog.org
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SOURCE Consumer Watchdog