TO THE EDITOR:
In regards to "House lawmakers say AV bill will be a priority" (Oct. 26), I would like to point out some action by NHTSA.
Since 2018, NHTSA has been moving cautiously around this administration's deregulatory influence on the Department of Transportation.
In recent actions with regards to AV testing on public roads, NHTSA has made an unusual but significant motion toward a means to regulate testing. NHTSA-2020-0070 is a notice in the Federal Register of a proposed federal website that will link to state-run websites that will control testing and notify the public of tests on their local roads. This is a major step forward for the feds to set standards for the states to follow.
NHTSA has included my 10 Star Speed Safety Ratings System Sticker as one of its "other" official documents in this docket. Although the docket is not directly connected to improving the New Car Assessment Program, by using this sticker in its official Federal Docket for AV Testing, one can expect that this will have an impact on moving our transportation safety forward.
DAVID DeVEAU, Owner, DeVco Design & Development, Westfield, Mass. The writer is an independent transportation safety advocate. DeVco Design & Development is an engineering consultancy.
