August 3, 2017

Federal legislation on the regulation of self-driving cars may be gaining traction.  The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved a bipartisan bill that would ease safety restrictions on self-driving cars and preempt state laws banning “highly automated systems” or self-driving vehicles to allow designers to test and deploy cars on the road.  The Safely Ensuring Lives Future Deployment and Research in Vehicle Evolution Act (the “SELF DRIVE Act”) bill passed the House Committee with a 54-0 vote.  It would facilitate the release by automakers of 25,000 automated vehicles in the first year and up to 100,000 automated vehicles annually, starting in the third year after the bill’s effective date.  (more…)