Consumer and safety advocates are pressing Congress to scale back the number of safety exemptions for autonomous vehicles in legislation now under consideration, saying they would result in mass deployment of new technology without adequate safety protections, government oversight or industry accountability. The Senate Commerce Committee is scheduled to vote Wednesday on the AV START Act, which encourages autonomous vehicle development in part by granting each developer exemptions to annually operate up to 100,000 vehicles, phased in over three years, that don't meet current federal motor vehicle safety standards. The SELF-DRIVE Act, passed by the House during the summer, also allows a similar number of exemptions.
Read Article