The U.S. House has approved a nationwide overhaul of autonomous vehicle legislation.
The bill, which we have reported on before, would allow automakers to deploy up to 25,000 semi-autonomous and autonomous vehicles in the first year without complying to current safety standards. That number would then rise to 100,000 vehicles annually over the next three years.
The bill would also be enacted across the entirety of the U.S. meaning car manufacturers wouldn’t have to worry about complying with different laws in different states. Instead, companies would only need to submit safety assessment reports to regulators while states would continue to handle registration, licensing, liability, insurance and safety inspections.
Before the bill can be passed into law it needs to go through the Senate.
In a statement, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers trade group expressed its support saying “Congress can bring a host of benefits to Americans by helping to bring self-driving vehicles to our roads as quickly as possible.”
However, the Consumer Watchdog isn’t so fond of the changes, telling Reuters “The autonomous vehicle bill just passed by the House leaves a wild west without adequate safety protections for consumers. It pre-empts any state safety standards, but there are none at the national level.”
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