California, Arizona, Florida, and Michigan are among the earliest states to have legislation allowing some forms of autonomous car testing on their public roads. But what is autonomous car testing? Who gets to decide how automakers, auto parts and component suppliers, and even ride-hailing companies test this technology?
Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Toyota Motors, and SAE International—that is the Society of Automotive Engineers—have formed a consortium to develop a set of “best practices” for testing Level 4 and Level 5 autonomy on public roads. Work already is well underway to set a standard for conducting such testing for both states, companies, and other interested entities to follow.
“We have an initial draft set of principles for the safe deployment of the Level 4 and Level 5 vehicles, and we expect to publish a roadmap that addresses some of those areas, soon,” said Edward Straub, executive director of the Automated Vehicle Safety Consortium (AVSC).
This first output, a “roadmap of priorities . . . intended to be applicable for developers, manufacturers and integrators of automated-vehicle technology” will center on data sharing, according to the Safety Consortium’s release. This roadmap will be issued “in weeks or months,” Straub said, declining to be more specific. The draft standards are subject to review and comment from Ford, GM, and Toyota before they are published and released publicly.
The AVSC will put best practices it develops before a “public discourse” every three to six months, Straub added.
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