HOUSE OF REPS: “The U.S. House of Representatives will vote Wednesday [8-30-17] on a sweeping proposal to speed the deployment of self-driving cars without human controls and bar states from blocking autonomous vehicles, congressional aides said.
The bill, which was passed unanimously by a House panel in July, would allow automakers to obtain exemptions to deploy up to 25,000 vehicles without meeting existing auto safety standards in the first year, a cap that would rise to 100,000 vehicles annually over three years…
The bill will be voted under fast-track rules that do not allow for amendments. A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has been working on similar legislation but has not introduced a bill…
The issue has taken on new urgency since U.S. road deaths rose 7.7 percent in 2015, the highest annual jump since 1966.
Automakers and technology companies believe chances are good that Congress will approve legislation before year end. Current federal rules bar self-driving cars without human controls on U.S. roads and automakers think proposed state rules in California are too restrictive.
The measure, the first significant federal legislation aimed at speeding self-driving cars to market, would require automakers to submit safety assessment reports to regulators, but would not require pre-market approval of advanced vehicle technologies.”
-David Shepardson, “House to vote on self-driving car legislation next week,” Reuters, Aug. 31, 2017 09:23am