On March 10, 2022, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a first-of-its-kind final rule updating occupant safety requirements to account for vehicles that lack the traditional manual controls associated with a human driver.1
The rule amends the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) on occupant protection, changing terminology to reflect the spatial layout of autonomous vehicles (AVs), which come equipped with Automated Driving Systems (ADS),2 and changing the standards to maintain the level of safety provided to occupants in traditional vehicles.
This rule becomes effective September 26, 2022 (early compliance is optional). NHTSA will receive petitions for reconsideration on or before May 16, 2022.
Background
This rule builds on NHTSA’s previous efforts to ensure public safety as driving automation evolves, while at the same time encouraging innovation. Last year, NHTSA issued an order requiring AV operators and manufacturers to report crashes to the agency, while in 2020 it launched an AV testing initiative that allows states and companies to submit information about AV testing that can be viewed by the public. The final rule is mostly unchanged from the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued by the NHTSA nearly two years ago, from which it solicited input from industry experts along with vehicle manufacturers and technology companies such as General Motors, Tesla, Waymo and others.3
New Terminology
The rule makes changes to FMVSS terminology written for traditionally designed vehicles in order to avoid ambiguity and unnecessary terminology. Terms like “driver’s seat,” “passenger seat” or “steering wheel” do not make sense to use as spatial references for purpose-built AVs that come without these features.4 For example, companies like Cruise and Zoox are building driverless AVs designed for ride-sharing that lack many features of traditional interiors. Some of the rule’s most significant changes in terminology include:
- Changed “steering wheel” to “steering control.”5
- “Passenger seating position” changed to include what would have been the driver’s seat prior to stowing manual driving controls.6
- Clarification of “outboard seating position.”7
- Added new definitions for “driver air bag” and “driver dummy.”8
For AVs that can be operated by either an ADS or a steering control, such as those built by Waymo and Motional, the NHTSA terms them “dual-mode vehicles” and clarifies how the FMVSSs apply to them (see below).9
New Requirements
The final rule also amends requirements for manufacturers resulting from the terminology revisions in order to maintain the same level of safety provided to occupants of traditional vehicles. This includes “the treatment of advanced air bags and advanced air bag suppression telltales in ADS-equipped vehicles, lockability requirements, and changes to…seat belt requirements for medium-sized buses and large school buses following the removal of the term ‘driver.’”10 New requirements include:
- Using “front row” as a spatial reference instead of “driver’s seat.”11
- Using “outboard seats” as a spatial reference for placement of test dummies.12
- “Dual-mode certification” requiring dual mode vehicles to comply with applicable FMVSSs in both modes.13
In cases where AVs are manufactured to transport goods instead of people, such as the AVs made by Nuro, the rule tailors the FMVSSs to exclude those vehicles, ruling that the original safety need does not exist when there are no occupants to protect.14
The rule also contemplates how the design of AVs changes safety considerations. For example, since there is no need for conventional driver’s side airbags in AV front passenger seats, the rule requires advanced air bags for all front outboard seats, because “applying advanced air bag requirements to all front outboard…
Read More: DOT Amends Safety Standards to Account for Autonomous Vehicles | Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP