US lawmakers launch bipartisan effort to boost self-driving car

WASHINGTON Reuters - Two members of the U.S. House of Representatives are launching a bipartisan effort to revive legislative efforts to boost self-driving vehicles.

Representatives Robert Latta, a Republican, and Debbie Dingell, a Democrat, told Reuters in a joint interview that they are unveiling the bipartisan Congressional Autonomous Vehicle Caucus to educate fellow lawmakers on the importance of self-driving vehicles as they work to revive legislation.

"We're working hard to find that common ground to pass, and we need to update motor vehicle safety standards that were written decades ago assuming human drivers are in control and can't afford to have a patchwork of laws across 50 states," Dingell said. Last month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said General Motors and Ford Motor had asked for exemptions to deploy up to 2,500 self-driving vehicles annually without human controls like steering wheels and brake pedals, the maximum allowed under current law.

Both of us are from automobile states, Latta said. It is important to keep our competitiveness in the United States - we are using U.S. technology that is not coming from China. It has to be done here in the United States. Latta acknowledged that self-driving car legislation might not pass until the next two-year Congress that will open in 2023. It's important that we get members involved from all over the country, Latta said. This is something that is going to affect everyone. The US lawmakers have been divided over how to amend regulations to include self-driving cars, including the scope of consumer and legal protections.

In 2017, the House of Representatives passed legislation to speed up the adoption of self-driving cars and banning states from setting performance standards, but the bill didn't get a lot of attention in the U.S. Senate.

The lawmakers noted that the U.S. traffic deaths jumped 10.5% in 2021 to 42,915, the highest number on American roads in a single-year period since 2005, and said autonomous vehicles could save thousands of lives and reduce congestion.

Senators Gary Peters and John Thune have been working on legislation for autonomous vehicles. They proposed giving NHTSA the power to exempt 15,000 self-driving vehicles per manufacturer from current federal motor vehicle safety standards, a figure that would rise to 80,000 within three years.