Skip to main content
Affordable Employee Training Exclusively for NJBIA Members LEARN MORE

Everything from cars with driver-assistance features, like hands-free parking, to fully autonomous vehicles are already on the road, but a national law governing their standards and use failed to pass last year and hasn’t received any floor votes this year.

Now, The Hill reports that two key congressional committees are taking another stab at it.

“Two key congressional committees are restarting talks with relevant stakeholders to put together legislation for self-driving cars after two bills last Congress failed to be signed into law amid pushback from consumer advocates and some Senate Democrats,” writer Maggie Miller reported recently.

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce, chaired by U.S. Rep. Pallone of New Jersey, and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation recently sent letters to stakeholders saying they are “working on a bipartisan and bicameral basis to develop a self-driving car bill.” The Hill had obtained a copy of a letter. There are US locations even entire states promoting this sort of bill. If interested check this article about how Boston is building partnerships with self-driving technology companies.

“The committees asked for feedback on issues involved in creating legislation on self-driving cars such as the cybersecurity of the vehicles, the privacy of data collected and how to update existing standards in place for automated vehicles,” Miller wrote, added that they gave stakeholders until Aug. 23 to respond.

A national law could be expected to take the place of a patchwork of state laws. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, most states have already enacted legislation, and a few have dealt with the issue through executive order. New Jersey has introduced legislation but has no rules in place.

The House passed a bill last year but it failed to get anywhere in the Senate.

Read more.