In the realm of AV safety and regulation, a stark contrast exists between the approaches advocated in North America and Europe. The disparity was clear in two events that successively took place recently.
Autonomous Vehicle Safety & Regulation Panel at The Autonomous
What’s at stake?
Germany’s recently passed autonomous-vehicle regulations earned the country bragging rights as the first in the world to bring legal certainty to Level 4 AVs, in which automated driving features do not require human intervention.
Lawyers working for the U.S. AV industry, and those looking to score political points, maintain that delayed regulations in America could hamstring automakers in the global AV race. What’s really at stake, however, is public safety. Will AV rules under development in the United States come with enough muscle to help AV manufacturers raise public confidence in the long-term safety of driverless vehicles?