NHTSA may have to take the wheel on automation

New bills introduced in Congress in the past year would affect automakers by increasing agency oversight and enhancing regulations related to advanced driver-assistance systems, recalls and vehicle seat safety.

The National Transportation Safety Board in the past has noted a "lack of federal safety standards" for automated driving systems. Last year, the Stay Aware for Everyone Act was introduced in the Senate. If enacted, the SAFE Act would compel NHTSA to magnify its regulatory oversight. The legislation would require the Department of Transportation to conduct research regarding the installation and use of driver monitoring systems to minimize or eliminate driver distraction, driver disengagement, automation complacency and the foreseeable misuse of driver-assistance systems.

Renewed attention to the SAFE Act of 2020 comes after recent high-profile fatal accidents involving vehicles operating with advanced driver-assistance and autonomous systems, where human operators reportedly failed to appropriately intervene to avoid a collision. In one incident, a social media user was arrested following a widely circulated video that showed him riding in the back seat of his electric vehicle with the driver-assistance system engaged.

These reports reveal user over-reliance on the capabilities of current driver-assistance and autonomous-vehicle system technology. Thus, a looming challenge to AV systems makers will be the gap between the public's expectations of the performance of driver-assistance and automation technology and the reality of their current limitations. Until vehicles are truly ready to be called "driverless," advanced driver-assistance and autonomous-vehicle systems manufacturers face the problem of keeping drivers engaged in the task of driving to the level required by the technology.

Presently, NHTSA does not regulate how automakers and AV technology companies monitor driver engagement. The NTSB has strongly criticized what it calls NHTSA's "hands-off" approach. Many vehicles with advanced driver-assistance systems use an inward-facing camera to track eye and head movements, to ensure that the driver pays attention to the road while the system is engaged and to provide visual and audible alerts when they don't. When a driver does not respond to these alerts — perhaps because of distraction, fatigue or a medical emergency — some systems may even pull the vehicle over to the side of the road.

In 2020, the NTSB recommended the use of driver monitoring systems in vehicles with Automation Level 2 technology as a means of promoting driver engagement, but such systems are not presently mandated in a uniform way. If enacted, the SAFE Act would require the Transportation Department to decide if such systems should become mandatory in all new vehicles. Automakers would then have two years to comply.

The SAFE Act is one of several new bills introduced in the past 12 months that would enhance auto industry oversight. Other bills propose:

1. Accelerating recall reporting from automakers.

2. Setting up a system to help automakers report possible vehicle defects sooner for NHTSA to investigate.

3. Bolstering vehicle seatback standards.

In February, the Safe Recall Information Distributed Equitably Act was introduced in the House. This bill directs the Government Accountability Office to study motor vehicle recalls and the reasons vehicle owners frequently do not have recall repairs performed. It also directs NHTSA to study how recall notices can reach vehicle owners more effectively, be made easier to understand and incentivize owners to complete repairs. An apparently related bill would require the secretary of transportation to establish a motor vehicle recall assistance program.

Simultaneously, a bill was introduced in the Senate that would require the secretary of transportation to issue a final rule that would revise motor vehicle seatback safety standards.

Because seats can collapse rearward in rear-end collisions, thereby endangering an occupant in the back seat or even ejecting the occupant rearward, NHTSA in 1967 established Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 207. This standard requires automakers to build seats strong enough to meet a static pull compliance test: The unoccupied seat must withstand a horizontal load (applied forward and backward) equal to 20 times the mass of the seat multiplied by 9.8. Critics have said that the standard is too weak, and although automakers have reportedly been exceeding its requirements for years, the degree to which they do so is inconsistent, and some argue still insufficient.

Automakers and tech companies have been allowed to liberally develop and test promising automated and advanced driver-assist technology. However, momentum may be shifting toward tighter control as risks become more apparent, particularly those rooted in human overestimation of the state of the art. The bills mentioned here, currently making their way through Congress, will be ones to watch.