Group Wants Industry’s Anti-AV Legislation Push Quashed
A consumer rights group is calling for alleged efforts by the automotive industry to overturn California’s autonomous vehicle legislation to be forestalled nationally.
Ahead of the US House of Representatives’ return to Democratic hands in January, anti-corporate consumer advocacy group Consumer Watchdog is urging outgoing House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senior Senator Chuck Schumer to prevent Republicans from transferring responsibility for amendments concerning object recognition technology to the AV START Act to the House.
The group claims these amendments grant autonomous vehicle developers exemptions from the state’s Consumer Privacy Act and Republicans want to remove local Democrats like Senator Dianne Feinstein from the decision-making process to ensure the legislation gets waved through and maximum freedom to operate is granted to AV developers. The group claims the AV sector is working in tandem with Republicans to prevent oversight into the development of its tech and is taking advantage of the lull between Republican and Democratic control of the House to do this.
It wrote to Pelosi: “The auto industry should not be able to wipe out California’s self-driving car safety and incident reporting laws or the application of the new California Consumer Privacy Act … we ask you to stop this reckless and craven power grab by the automakers in its tracks … an AV law should immediately set performance standards that ensure an AV can detect and respond to its surroundings … it should immediately set performance standards for cyber-security and electronics. AV START fails to do this and threatens meaningful state laws … there is no reason to rush this deeply flawed legislation through Congress.”
