Groups urge Congress to consider auto safety, work force concerns in AV legislation

Executives from groups that represent consumers and unionized workers on Tuesday pressed members of Congress to prioritize vehicle safety and workers' needs in any effort to develop a federal framework for autonomous vehicles and other forward-looking technologies.

A U.S. House subcommittee heard testimony from the Center for Auto Safety and the AFL-CIO, which urged taking a cautious approach to issues such as AV testing and deployment and other transportation technologies such as advanced driver-assistance systems.

Jason Levine, the center's executive director, said that "a clear vision for how to safely introduce automated driving in a way that will provide benefits to all involved, not just shareholders" is necessary, according to his prepared testimony to the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce.

"As Congress undertakes the vital task of writing our nation's first autonomous vehicle law, we urge this subcommittee to keep in mind the need to protect consumers in order to successfully move the needle forward for AV safety and deployment in the decades ahead," Levine said.

Specifically, the consumer advocacy group recommends a four-pronged approach to existing and future vehicle technologies. That approach includes mandatory performance standards for advanced driver-assist systems, data collection, operational safety standards that can be verified by a third party as well as cybersecurity standards, updated occupant protection standards and other standards to protect pedestrians and other vulnerable road users.

"Following a voluntary standard model for AVs is a fool's errand," Levine said in his testimony. "Industry voluntary standards — created for commercial purposes — can be a nice benchmark but can also be easily ignored or subverted at any time by any participant."

Greg Regan, president of the AFL-CIO's transportation trades department, asked lawmakers to consider the needs of "hundreds of thousands of union members."

"Policymakers must balance the interests of a growing industry with transportation safety and American workers' needs to care for their families and retire with dignity," Regan said in his written testimony. "This is not an all-or-nothing choice. But transportation labor steadfastly rejects the hands-off, deregulatory approach to the radical disruptions that AVs will bring to roadway safety and good American jobs."

Regan urged the subcommittee to "tread carefully and consider both the opportunities and risks" posed by AVs and asked lawmakers to continue to exclude vehicles weighing more than 10,000 pounds in any AV bill that is introduced. He also called for human operators to be present in AVs that weigh less than 10,000 pounds that carry passengers.

Regan, too, stressed the need for a "strong" federal framework for AV testing and deployment and asked the subcommittee to incorporate the safety framework outlined in November by Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, the Center for Disability Rights, Transportation for America, Consumer Reports and other stakeholders.

The UAW is an affiliated member of the AFL-CIO.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a group that represents most major automakers in the U.S., in December also released a four-year action plan to guide federal policies and advance the testing and deployment of AVs in the U.S.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, chairman of the subcommittee, in opening remarks said that "the federal government needs to create standards to ensure the safe deployment of technologies that are available now and in the future."

"Standards will create certainty that is needed to accelerate innovation," the Illinois Democrat said.

Rep. Gus Bilirakis, ranking member of the subcommittee, said while self-driving vehicles are not sold on the market today, Congress must develop a framework path forward for safe testing and deployment.

"Driverless vehicles now are still in ... the very early testing stages and still have a long way to go," said Bilirakis, a Florida Republican. "However, by designing our own moonshot framework for AVs, we can set the industry on the path to a fully autonomous vehicle that is currently still many years away."

Bilirakis also said he plans to introduce a bill later this week that identifies how to "most effectively communicate about the capabilities and limitations of advanced driver-assistance systems by examining how manufacturers advertise, disclose, label and name their vehicles' driving systems."

The congressman referred to names such as Tesla's Autopilot as misleading to consumers.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Washington Republican, said the Energy and Commerce Committee must move bipartisan legislation to ensure the U.S. leads in AVs and related technologies.

"China is moving forward with ambitious plans to lead the development and deployment of AVs," she said. "Their authoritarian regime is already providing a road map. We cannot trust the [Chinese Communist Party] to set the standards for this industry, and we certainly cannot trust them to protect intellectual property and individual rights."

Other House lawmakers — including Rep. Debbie Dingell, a member of the subcommittee — have said they're set on prioritizing an AV bill this year after earlier attempts to pass legislation stalled in the Senate.

"We have been working with all of the stakeholders very intentionally, and our goal is to make sure that the consumer is safe and, at the same time, that we continue to lead in innovation and technology in the world," Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, told Automotive News on Monday. "So that's why discussions with all the stakeholders have been going on for months, and we continue to work together."