WASHINGTON: President Joe Bidens pledged Thursday to run the nation’s highway safety agency by implementing safety rules to prevent poor driving while scrutinizing rapidly emerging automated technologies, such as Tesla vehicles, in fatal car crashes. of crisis, which can put people. risk.
Former California pollution regulator Steven Cliffe said he is seriously concerned about the unprecedented rise in deaths due to reckless driving in the coronavirus pandemic.
He said that if confirmed as head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, he would work to quickly adopt rules urging seat belt use, and new infrastructure to reduce drunk driving. Will enforce the mandate under the law.
I’m committed to changing that, Cliff told the Senate Commerce Committee, referring to the crash trend.
He said the infrastructure law would help by increasing NHTSA’s budget by 50%, with the money used to boost staffing and improve US data collection to better understand where and how accidents happen.
An estimated 38,680 people died in traffic accidents in 2020, the most since 2007, even though the total miles traveled dropped at the start of the pandemic. In the first three months of 2021, 8,730 people died in motor vehicle traffic accidents, a 10.5% increase compared to the same period last year.
The Associated Press reported in October that the agency is grappling with a growing backlog of Congress-ordered safety regulations that are years overdue and could save thousands of lives. An AP review of rulemaking by NHTSA under the past three presidents found at least 13 auto safety rules due past due, including a back seat belt reminder requirement passed by Congress in 2012 that were to be implemented by 2015.
Cliff, currently the agencies’ deputy administrator, expects widespread support from the committee, but faces delays in final confirmation, along with several other nominees from the Department of Transportation. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., has said he will hold all Transportation and Commerce nominees until he receives more information from the Biden administration on efforts to fix delays in the US supply chain. A hold prevents a motion from going to the Senate floor and must generally pass by 60 votes, a time-consuming process.
Under Cliff, NHTSA has rewritten vehicle fuel economy standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The agency forced electric vehicle sales leader Tesla Inc. to recall cars to fix touch screens and opened an investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot partially automated driver-assistance system caused by accidents in parked emergency vehicles.
Cliff suggested Thursday that the Tesla investigation could take months and declined to say whether enforcement action could be taken. But in a potential warning shot to its CEO Elon Musk, Cliff insisted the agency would not allow security to be lost in the name of innovation. In recent months, the chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, Jennifer Homendy, has criticized Tesla, saying the description of full self-driving for its latest driver-assistance system was misleading and urging NHTSA to take action.
NHTSA is investigating a complaint that Tesla’s full self-driving software nearly crashed. The company is allowing owners to test the software on public roads. And NHTSA is investigating why Tesla crashed into parked emergency vehicles using the company’s Autopilot system, even though their warning lights were flashing.
I would like to clarify that any vehicle that is not available for purchase today is not capable of self-driving. There is nothing that can replace a fully attentive driver in vehicles today, Cliffe said, referring to the agency’s stance toward enforcement. While future automated driving technology holds much promise for reducing car accidents, he said, “We cannot give up on safety in the interim.
A message was left on Thursday seeking comment from Tesla, which has disbanded its media relations department. Tesla has said in the past that neither full self-driving nor Autopilot are fully autonomous and that drivers should be prepared to intervene at all times. Musk said in January that he expected full self-driving systems to drive more reliably than humans this year.
NHTSA, which sets vehicle safety standards, detects safety defects, manages recalls and helps develop government fuel economy requirements, has been a confirmed administrator since Mark Roskind left in late 2016. been without. Auto safety advocates are calling for Biden to make one. Enrollment so that a determined administrator can start moving forward on the security agenda.
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Krischer reported from Detroit.
Disclaimer: This post has been self-published from the agency feed without modification and has not been reviewed by an editor
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