Issues in autonomous vehicle testing and deployment
Autonomous vehicles have the potential to bring major improvements in highway safety. Motor vehicle crashes caused an estimated 36,096 fatalities in 2019; a study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has shown that 94% of crashes involve human error. For this and other reasons, federal oversight of the testing and deployment of autonomous vehicles has been of considerable interest to Congress. In the 115th Congress, autonomous vehicle legislation passed the House as H.R. 3388, the SELF DRIVE Act, and a separate bill, S. 1885, the AV START Act, was reported from a Senate committee. Neither bill was enacted. Comprehensive legislation concerning autonomous vehicles was not introduced in the 116th Congress, but the America’s Transportation Infrastructure Act of 2019, S. 2302, which was reported by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, would have encouraged research and
development of infrastructure that could accommodate new technologies such as autonomous vehicles. Comprehensive legislation has not been introduced in the 117th Congress as of the date of this report.