Feds set to unveil self-driving car guidelines

The guidance will include a 15-point “safety assessment” that outlines the federal expectations for the design, testing and deployment of autonomous vehicles and asks manufacturers and developers to document how they are meeting each topic area.

Foxx said that unlike the traditional rigid standards for automobiles, regulators will determine whether driverless vehicles are meeting their safety and design expectations on a more case-by-case basis in an effort to give companies more room for innovation.

“Typically, we’d say a car has to meet X standard in a certain way”, Foxx said. With automated vehicles, however, “we recognize there’s going to be different types of innovation and we intend to evaluate each of those on their own terms.”

The second component of the guidance seeks to clarify the state role versus the federal role in overseeing self-driving cars, a largely murky area that has sparked some concern among automakers and tech companies.