Crash-report mandate a turning point for AV tech

WASHINGTON — An order issued by NHTSA last week that requires companies to report crashes involving certain automated-driving technology is perhaps the biggest hint yet that the nation's top highway safety agency is changing course under the Biden administration.

The order — served to 108 companies — requires manufacturers and operators of vehicles equipped with advanced driver-assistance systems or automated-driving systems to report to the agency crashes in which the system was engaged "during or immediately before the crash."

The agency's directive applies to vehicles equipped with Level 2 systems — those with driver-assist features such as lane-centering assistance and adaptive cruise control — and Level 3 to Level 5 self-driving systems, which are not yet available to consumers but are being tested and deployed in a limited scale on public roads.

"NHTSA is decidedly pivoting … from the general hands-off approach over the last several years," said Tim Goodman, a partner in the transportation practice at Thompson Hine law firm in Washington. "It makes clear that, in NHTSA's view, the landscape has shifted and the risks are evolving."

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation — a group that represents most automakers in the U.S. as well as some suppliers and tech companies that are working on automated-driving tech — said last week it was reviewing the new reporting obligations.

"I'd be surprised if anybody felt like this was an intrusion or antagonistic in any way," said Carla Bailo, CEO of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. "But rather, it's meant to kick off those discussions."

Consumer advocacy and auto safety groups last week commended the agency's action, which they said was "overdue."

Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety — a consortium of consumer, public health and safety groups as well as insurance companies — said the order demonstrates the Biden administration is now taking "concrete steps."

"Voluntary guidelines, assessments or agreements with no mechanism to compel compliance are inadequate Band-Aids designed to fail," the group said in emailed responses to Automotive News.

By mandating crash reporting, the group said, it keeps the Department of Transportation regularly informed and "clarifies that waiting for injuries and fatalities is not a viable path for development" of these technologies.

"Given the recent spate of accidents that we've seen with Tesla vehicles, I think it's overdue that they're taking a more active approach in gathering information about these … systems and how they're actually functioning in the real world as opposed to just the test data," said Sam Abuelsamid, a principal analyst who leads e-mobility research at Guidehouse Insights.

"If we see that the frequency of crashes where these systems are active is much higher than we previously believed," he added, "then we can figure out how we deal with the challenge of educating consumers about the systems."