Toronto, Ontario — The Trump Administration is carving out an exception to vehicle safety standards in order to streamline the arrival of autonomous vehicles.
On June 13, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy announced that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will be streamlining the Part 555 exemption process. This exemption allows original equipment manufacturers to sell up to 2,500 automated vehicles that do not completely comply with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard.
These automated vehicles include ones that do not have driver-operated brakes, rear-view mirrors or traditional steering wheels. OEMs are still required to demonstrate that the exemption is in the public interest and that their vehicles meet safety levels equivalent to compliant vehicles.
“We’ve streamlined this process to remove another barrier to transportation innovation in the United States, ensure American AV companies can out-compete international rivals and maintain safety,” said Duffy in a news release. The streamlined exemption process is part of Duffy’s innovation agenda and NHTSA’s AV Framework, and according to the news release, involves improvements to “NHTSA’s internal processes to expedite processing time, improve transparency and increase engagement with applicants.”
“This next step in NHTSA’s AV Framework will advance innovation by supporting the commercial deployment of purpose-built automated vehicles that can satisfy safety requirements,” NHTSA Chief Counsel Peter Simshauser said in the same news release. “The agency continues working to modernize the FMVSS for automated vehicles, and in the meantime, Part 555 exemptions will play an integral role in enabling the ongoing advancement of our domestic AV industry.”
Further information on the current exemption process can be found in the letter to stakeholders.
