Autopilot Crash Shouldn't Slow Self-Driving Development, Regulator Says
July 22 2016 - 12:30PM
Dow Jones News
The head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
indicated Friday that regulators won't look to slow the pace of the
introduction of self-driving technology in the wake of a
high-profile fatality connected to Tesla Motors Inc.'s Autopilot
technology.
Mark Rosekind, speaking at a conference in Detroit, said the
auto industry "cannot wait for perfect" when it comes to how
quickly it deploys technology that makes cars safer. Tesla's
Autopilot technology has been criticized because it had a number of
vulnerabilities when it was released, potentially leading drivers
to put too much faith in that technology's ability to work
flawlessly.
Tesla has said Autopilot is a proven lifesaving feature and that
the company worked to inform drivers of Autopilot's shortcomings
since launching it in 2015. Other auto makers, including General
Motors Co., have held back similar technology because of concerns
over the ability to validate it.
Mr. Rosekind declined to address the Tesla fatality directly
because NHTSA is investigating the incident, which happened in May.
He said the agency's main objective is to reduce traffic
fatalities, which rose to 35,000 in 2015, an increase of 8%
compared with 2014.
"We should be desperate for anything we can find to save
people's lives," Mr. Rosekind said. Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk
has said his company would have been negligent to have withheld its
Autopilot system—which can steer, brake and accelerate autonomously
under certain conditions—from the cars it sells.
The auto industry and tech giants, including Alphabet Inc., are
racing to perfect autonomous vehicles that take the driver— and
errors attributed to humans—out of the equation. While mass-market
adoption is still several years away, according to most companies,
these types of vehicles are being increasingly tested on public
roads.
Meanwhile, light vehicles in various price ranges are adding
increasing amounts of technology that assists drivers.
Write to John D. Stoll at john.stoll@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 22, 2016 12:15 ET (16:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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