The auto industry is distancing itself from Tesla in response to new crash reporting rule
0Reported today on The Verge
For the full article visit: https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/30/22557135/nhtsa-autonomous-adas-crash-rule-response-tesla
Reported today in The Verge.
The auto industry is distancing itself from Tesla in response to new crash reporting rule
The auto industry is holding its fire - for now - over the new requirement to report crashes involving vehicles equipped with partially and fully autonomous driving systems. But automakers are also distancing themselves from the company that appears to be the primary target of the new rule: Tesla.
The rule, issued yesterday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, requires companies like Tesla and Alphabet's Waymo to report incidents involving driver assistance and autonomous systems within one day of learning of a crash, a major change that signals a tougher stance by regulators.
So far, car companies are taking a wait-and-see approach, mostly lauding NHTSA's commitment to safety and transparency, while objecting to the perceived conflation of driver-assistance systems, like Tesla's Autopilot, with fully autonomous vehicles like those operated by Waymo. While many autonomous vehicles are deployed in states with regulations on the books, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) like Tesla's Autopilot fall in a legal gray area that allowed incidents to escape further examination.
Most of the individual companies declined to comment on the ruling, preferring to speak through the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group that represents all of the major automakers and their suppliers - but notably not Tesla. The alliance released a statement that singled out "misuse and abuse" of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).
"As we evaluate NHTSA's new reporting obligations, it's critical that consumers know and understand the benefits -and limitations -of these features to build and improve confidence in proven vehicle safety te