Safety researchers are ‘calling again’ on automated driving regulations

(TND) — A driving safety nonprofit is calling the attention of “federal regulators” over the lack of guardrails and data collection for vehicle automation systems.

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, such systems are available in almost half of new cars.

According to the IIHS, driver assistance systems combine adaptive cruise control, lane centering and various other features using cameras, radar or other sensors to “see” the road and other vehicles.

There are also fully autonomous, driverless cars that are not publicly available.

David Kidd, a senior research fellow at IIHS, sent something of an open letter to regulators this week, shortly after a group of senators wrote to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration asking that the agency “take decisive control of the wheels and vehicles” driving manufacturers towards prioritizing safety.”

Kidd said he viewed the senators’ letter to NHTSA as a chance for him and IIHS to “call again” on their safety concerns.

The IIHS has been calling for safety features in driver-assistance systems for years, he said.

“We have not observed anything that would indicate a safety issue,” Kidd said. “We (also) have not seen anything to indicate that these systems improve safety. But their number is growing. They are increasing in complexity and we like how much of driving they will automate. And so… NHTSA needs to do something to make sure there is some baseline level of safety.”

Kidd said IIHS has a similar mission to NHTSA’s, but without the enforcement mechanism.

Publicly available features are not autonomous systems, and the IIHS says they can make driving more dangerous if they give drivers a false sense of security.

These are convenience features, although the public may believe they are more than that, the IIHS said.

IIHS President David Harkey told The National Desk in March that his group tried to fill the regulatory void by beginning testing driver-assist systems about a year ago.

An IIHS report released earlier this year found that only one of 14 driver assistance systems received an acceptable rating.

No partial driving automation system received an overall good rating from the IIHS.

The best-performing system was Lexus Teammate with Advanced Drive, which is available in the 2022-24 Lexus LS.

Two other systems received marginal overall scores and the remaining 11 rated poor. However, some individual criteria performed well even in lower rated systems.

Kidd said NHTSA has not yet issued any regulations to ensure the safety of driving automation systems.

The IIHS has some “simple” suggestions, he said.

For partial driving automation systems to function, the driver must be wearing a seat belt and have automatic emergency braking and lane departure prevention activated.

He also said there should be cameras and sensors in the car to keep the driver engaged – with eyes on the road and hands on the steering wheel.

“There are some basic things that federal regulators can require to make these systems safer,” Kidd said.

They are also concerned about the lack of data on driving automation systems and accidents.

Data is crucial so that people like him can assess the security of these systems.

In some cases, there are data reporting requirements, but there are duplications and discrepancies in reporting, he said.

And reports may be incomplete.

Kidd said he would like to see NHTSA create a repository of vehicle identification numbers with features that investigators could compare to insurance claims and accident reports.