Survey: Regulators, Industry Want Federal AV Regulations

Greg Hyde

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15th January 2019

A study from an unmanned vehicle makers’ association shows US regulators and industry figures both want federal regulations on autonomous vehicles to be established.

The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) conducted the survey in association with law firm Perkins Coie (LLP). Over 260 figures from the automotive and technology industries and federal and state regulatory bodies were questioned.

A slim majority (54%) of respondents felt regulations should be drawn up by the US Department of Transportation (DoT). The next most popular form of regulation after that provided by the DoT was industry self-regulation (23%). However, individual state regulation was seen as the most likely framework for standards on licensing, training, liability, and traffic issues, with only AV design being viewed as an area more likely overseen by federal regulators.

25% of respondents said AV tech was moving too quickly, while 81% of regulators said “safety standards for experimental testing range[s]” were “necessary”. Both sets of respondents said the biggest barrier to widespread AV adoption by 2024 was concern about public safety (34%), followed by investment costs seeming prohibitive (24%). When asked what they felt the biggest effect of recent high-profile AV accidents was, the most commonly given response was a likely “loss of consumer confidence in AVs” (30%).

Cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) connectivity was the infrastructural adjustment to smart cities the majority of respondents (60%) said they would like to see in 2019, followed by cellular vehicle-to-infrastructure (C-V2I) connectivity (49%). When asked what urban infrastructure improvements would need to be made to facilitate testing and usage of AV tech, 54% of respondents said they would like to see road upgrades with smart signposting tech, with clearer lane markings being the next most common response at 26%.