On March 10, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued occupant protection for Vehicles With Automated Driving Systems (ACTION: Final Rule).
The rules update occupant protection standards in the FMVSS (Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards) to apply to "vehicles equipped with ADS (autonomous driving systems) without traditional manual driving control functions."
Since then, NHTSA will no longer require self-driving car manufacturers to equip fully autonomous vehicles with manual driving control systems such as traditional steering wheels, brakes or accelerator pedals to meet occupant safety protection standards in a collision.
NHTSA officially used the word "Historic Step" to express this is a key step to promote the landing of true "driverless".
Previously, occupant protection standards were written entirely for traditional vehicle functions equipped with steering wheels and other manual controls.
The rules clarify that despite the innovative design of ADS technologies, they must continue to provide the same high level of occupant protection as existing passenger cars.
"By the 2020s, an important part of USDOT's safety mission will be to ensure that safety standards are synchronized with the development of autonomous driving and driver assistance systems." PETE Buttigieg, Minister of USDOT, said, "The new regulations are an important step towards establishing strong safety standards for ADS vehicles."
Dr. Steven Cliff, deputy director of NHTSA, said, "In vehicles equipped with ADS, the need to protect human safety remains constant as the driver transitions from a human to a machine and must be integrated from the start."
"We use this rule to ensure that manufacturers put safety first."
The rules will take effect 180 days after the Federal Register is published, so is "nobody" coming so soon?
01
What does NHTSA's final rule change?
In fact, the release of the rules was not a sudden move by NHTSA.
Previously, NHTSA has been evaluating possible options for revising the FMVSS series of standards to accommodate ADS vehicles (no traditional manually controlled L4, L5 vehicles) and has been continuously consulting with various stakeholders.
This preliminary work prompted the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to be issued as early as March 30, 2020.
In NPRM, NHTSA proposed amendments to the original crashworthiness standard (FMVSS 200 series) to ensure that vehicles equipped with ADS meet the same occupant safety and protection standards as traditional passenger cars under the FMVSS overall standard system, and to minimize significant changes to FMVSS.
In this 155-page release, the final rule also follows most of the terms of NPRM.
The rules first preserve the vast majority of terminology and definition changes in the FMVSS 200 series in NPRM, revising outdated regulatory wording to apply specific FMVSS standards to ADS vehicles.
These definitions include driver airbags, driver dummies, driver-specified seat positions, steering control systems, and the like. The revised definition does not assume that a vehicle must have a driver's seat, steering wheel and steering column.
The rules also revise the terms and definitions in the relevant standards that previously used traditional features such as "driver's seat", "passenger seat" and "steering control" as spatial references, providing a spatial reference framework for ADS vehicles without these legacy devices.
Notably, the final rule makes significant changes to FMVSS No. 208 Occupant crash protection.
Number 208 is one of NHTSA's most complex standards, and many of the standard's performance requirements and test procedures are based on driver's seat position, and its emphasis on driver position also reflects the need for legal driving age in the driver's seat of traditional vehicles.
This is clearly not the case for ADS vehicles, where the child may sit in the original driver's seat and the front left and right seats may no longer have significant differences in devices.
Therefore, all front-row exterior seats in ADS vehicles are considered front-row outer passenger seats and must meet the current FMVSS No. 208 requirements for front-row right-side passenger seats.
In addition, to ensure safety, NHTSA requires all front-row outer passenger seats to meet premium airbag requirements, with separate, conspicuous indication signals for the left and right seat airbags.
In addition, the rules simplify the FMVSS 200 series of standards that do not apply to ADS vehicle safety requirements.
For ADS vehicles without steering wheels or steering columns, FMVSS Nos. 203 Impact protection for the driver from the steering control system, FMVSS Nos. 204 Steering control rearward displacement no longer applies.
Other standards such as FMVSS No. 207 Seating systems and FMVSS No. 214 Side impact protection will be adjusted accordingly.
02
Under the rules, can self-driving cars really be unmanned?
To answer this question, start with the U.S. industrial regulatory environment and the FMVSS standard system.
Similar to most industries, U.S. regulation of the automotive industry is also quite broad-cut.
Since 1968, all vehicles sold in the U.S. market must be DOT certified, and FMVSS is the mandatory standard for DOT certification, which is developed/revised and implemented by NHTSA.
FMVSS is included in 49 CFR Part 571 B of the 49th Code of Federal Regulations (49 CFR 571) and contains the 100 series, 200 series, 300 series, 400 series, and 500 series, while the 100 series (active safety) and 200 series (passive safety) are the most complex.
The complete update of the rules to the FMVSS 200 Series clarifies the ambiguity of crashworthiness standards for ADS vehicles without traditional manual control, which is bound to be a "historic step" in the process of obtaining formal recognition.
At the same time, even from the perspective of the active safety capabilities of autonomous vehicles at this stage, if the subsequent ADS vehicles want to fully obtain official identity, their adaptation to the 100 series will certainly be more difficult than the 200 series.
At the same time, the U.S. government has remained technologically neutral in the development of autonomous driving, thereby providing a tolerant growth environment for enterprise innovation.
For the application and testing of new technologies that conflict with some of the standards in FMVSS, NHTSA allows companies to obtain some flexibility by applying for exemptions in certain situations that do not follow existing vehicle safety standards.
If the applicant can apply for an exemption on the grounds of "developing a safer vehicle or evaluating a new vehicle", "the exempted vehicle is not lower than the safety level of the unapproved vehicle", NHTSA requires that no more than 2,500 exempt vehicles sold in the United States within 12 months of the 12-month period of proof of exemption.
For vehicles that can be exempted, manual driving devices such as steering wheels, pedals, and rearview mirrors can be cancelled.
Back in 2018, GM and Nuro submitted exemptions to NHTSA for their respective innovative models.
In February 2020, the Nuro R2 successfully obtained a special exemption from the FMVSS No. 500 Low-speed vehicles and was allowed to operate on the demarcated public roads.
During the two-year exemption period, NHTSA opened the green light for R2 production and deployment, and closely monitored Nuro's operations during and after that time.
It's more complicated than nuro generic cases.
Just a month before the rules were issued, GM & Cruise announced that they were filing another petition with NHTSA for the cruise Origin self-driving car, which was "zero-emission, shared, and intentionally designed from the outset to be free of human driving."
Turning our attention back to the new regulations, it can also be found that the rules will not apply to any type of car without artificial driving devices.
The rules currently limit their scope to ADS vehicles with seating arrangements similar to those of conventional vehicles (the front seats face the front of the vehicle), as well as non-occupant vehicles designed specifically for carrying goods.
NHTSA noted that further research is still necessary in the future to address the different safety risks posed by non-traditional seating arrangements, such as opposing seats.
For dual-mode vehicles with load-on drive control capabilities (ADS vehicles with traditional driving modes), the rules also require that they demonstrate compliance with all applicable FMVSS requirements in both modes.
The answer is self-explanatory.
03
How far is the real "driverless" still far away?
Judging from the process of waiver applications, it is clear that the green light of NHTSA will be opened to more businesses next.
GM and Cruise's Robotaxi model Origin is undoubtedly one of the key focuses.
Rob Grant, Cruise's senior vice president of government affairs and social impact, said:
"The petition shows how Origin is achieving the security goals of existing standards and helps enable future AV regulations. In its public statements and regulatory actions, NHTSA made it clear that in order to consider developing AV standards, more real-world AV operational information is first needed. We believe this petition can help achieve this outcome – learning from Origin, which aims to improve overall road safety, will help update and develop regulations and standards accordingly."
Against the backdrop of numerous autonomous vehicle safety incidents, the regulatory orientation of USDOT and NHTSA seems to continue to be open.
Recently, USDOT Minister Pete Buttigieg also said that federal self-driving car policy will undergo "meaningful" developments in the coming years – "unless we start to see some real escalation of safety issues, this experiment can be allowed to flourish".
Judging from the process of mass production of models, this question is still difficult to answer.
However, looking back at the formulation and release process of this rule, the past progress and future plans of the giants who are really "driverless", there are still many clues through speculation.
From npRM in March 2020, during the solicitation of opinions from various stakeholders, to the final signing of the rules by NHTSA two years later, one of the main reasons may be from the car companies, autonomous driving technology companies and other ADS development entities and various lobby groups for many years - many giants have announced the development of steering wheelless and pedalless models long before March 10, 2022:
In 2019, Elon Musk said Tesla could be building a car without a steering wheel or pedals in two years.
"Once regulators feel reassured that we don't have a steering wheel, we cancel it. The probability of the steering wheel being taken away is 100%."
Musk again in 2021 said he was targeting a $25,000 electric car in 2023, hinting that it might not be equipped with a steering wheel.
GM began filing an exemption petition with NHTSA for its "zero-emission autonomous vehicles" as early as 2018.
Cruise Origin was also released as early as January 2020 and was expected to begin production in early 2023. Until the waiver application is submitted again this year, it is only one month before the new NHTSA regulations.
Waymo's "NoBody" program even dates back to its inception.
Last December, Waymo announced a partnership with Geely to launch a futuristic electric car for its U.S. ride-hailing service, with "passenger first" and no steering wheel.
Waymo didn't give any specific timeline, saying the new fleet will launch "in the coming years."
In November 2021, Bloomberg reported that Apple was accelerating the development of electric vehicles and refocusing the project on fully autonomous driving capabilities that did not require human intervention, with the goal of launching its self-driving car within four years (2025), and Apple's ideal car would have no steering wheel and pedals. Although the news of its car construction has been tossing and turning.
With the new requirements for FMVSS, we will wait and see in these time nodes in the future.
Resources:
1、NHTSA, NHTSA Finalizes First Occupant Protection Safety Standards for Vehicles Without Driving Controls, https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/nhtsa-finalizes-first-occupant-protection-safety-standards-vehicles-without-driving
2、Hogan Lovells, NHTSA issues occupant protection safety standards for automated driving system equipped vehicles, https://www.engage.hoganlovells.com/knowledgeservices/news/nhtsa-issues-occupant-protection-safety-standards-for-automated-driving-system-equipped-vehicles
3、Cruise, Seeking NHTSA review of the Origin, https://www.getcruise.com/news/seeking-nhtsa-review-of-the-origin