Lorraine Explains: What the NHTSA's self-driving-car crash reporting mandate will find out

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From the Don’t-They-Already-Do-This? file, we bring you the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) latest mandate: if a car crash occurs that involves Level 2 Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) or Level 3-5 automated driving systems (ADS), it must be reported to authorities.

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Levels 0 to 2 mean the driver must be in control, and cars might sport things like lane-departure warnings, emergency braking, lane-centering, or adaptive cruise control. Level 3 is a hybrid of sorts, and where we are now, for the most part: the car is equipped with all the autonomous features and is capable of operating without a driver under basic conditions, but the driver is still required to be able to take control instantly. Level 4 doesn’t require a driver (think autonomous delivery vehicles currently being rolled out) in a wider variety of scenarios; while Level 5 is totally autonomous, anytime, anywhere. Zero to 2 have driver support features; 3 to 5 have automated driving features.

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Lorraine Explains: What the NHTSA's self-driving-car crash reporting mandate will find out Back to video

We need this new NHTSA reporting system because too many drivers – and auto manufacturers – are racing to blur the lines. Tesla calling something “Autopilot” is irresponsible, and the crash stats proving this are piling up. “ Tesla’s Autopilot software does not make the car fully self-driving, although one mode is named ‘Full Self-Driving,’” says a report on Business Insider about a lawsuit involving the death of a 15-year-old. While NHTSA has investigated all the headline-making crashes of Teslas (usually involving the engaged Autopilot mode and disengaged drivers) it is fair to say the relationship between the government body and the auto manufacturer has often been strained . But I don’t need to outline all the Tesla transgressions when our David Booth already has . 

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A little housekeeping: Canada’s version of the NHTSA is Transport Canada, and the latest statistics it makes available are from 2018. We use these numbers in reporting, but when technology is moving so fast, we need better than three-year-old data to make inferences or conclusions. Moreover, Statscan confesses “a reduced level of police reporting in British Columbia since 2008 has affected the British Columbia totals, and, to a lesser extent, national totals reported in” its publications, making it even more clear we could do better. So we look to the south.

We need this new NHTSA reporting system because too many drivers – and auto manufacturers – are racing to blur the lines

While the U.S. is far larger in population than Canada, we drive the same vehicles which sport the same functions and features. Our climate is considered extreme, but we all know the difference between Florida and the Yukon. Transport Canada frequently relies on NHTSA’s research and lead on automotive legislation. 

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We throw around the word “autonomous” with regards to cars all the time. Some think autonomous vehicles will be here next Tuesday; they won’t be. But even if they’re readily available a decade from now, it’s not like a switch gets flipped overnight. All of the parts of a car that will eventually evolve to make it autonomous are already part of most vehicles’ foundational systems. All of those features listed in Level 2 cars are using combinations of cameras, radar, sonar, and lidar to assist drivers. All of those cars plainly state that drivers must be in control of the car at all times. Human nature means some of those drivers are pushing those boundaries like teenagers whose parents are out of town.

Why do I care? Because I’d prefer not to have a car manufacturer or software company doing beta testing on public roadways surrounded by people who don’t know they’re part of some experiment. Advancements in auto tech have moved so fast, laws haven’t kept up. NHTSA has known for years it needed some way to chart what tech was involved in what crashes, and what the compromising factor actually was. They’ll find out what we all know: that many of those features are smarter, faster, and safer than the drivers behind the wheel, but they’ll also find out when a failure has occurred.

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From the Order: “Given the rapid evolution of these technologies and testing of new technologies and features on publicly accessible roads it is critical for NHTSA to exercise its robust oversight over potential safety defects in vehicles operating with ADS and Level 2 ADAS.” The italics are mine. This isn’t just about people who are buying and driving vehicles equipped with this tech, it’s about all of us sharing the road with them.

The Order is comprehensive.

The beauty of vehicles equipped with these driving aids is that they’re already squeal-boxes on wheels. Anything that happens with or to the vehicle is readily recorded and reported. Requiring reports from drivers as well as manufacturers means we’ll get a far clearer picture on just how good – or unreliable – things like pedestrian avoidance systems really are.