New federal rules target self- driving vehicles

Automakers will have to complete a 15- point safety assessment

Federal regulaSAN FRANCISCO tors, faced with a growing number of self- driving car tests on roads across the U. S., plan to issue a flurry of new guidelines Tuesday aimed at automakers and tech companies.

The U. S. Department of Transportation will require any new tech to meet a 15- point safety assessment, consider new powers to allow administrators to limit the deployment of experimental vehicles and will issue a model for state self- driving car policies aimed at developing a cohesive set of national regulations.

Officials will solicit public comments on the topic of self- driving car regulations for the next 60 days on the Transportation Department website and plan to update self- driving car policies annually.

“We’re laying it out there, what we care about, and inviting the industry to show us how they meet those standards,” Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said during a briefing late Monday. “Some companies haven’t dealt with us, but they’ll learn quickly we can go really deep on these topics. We want the public to be safe.”

Officials also stressed that the government reserves the right to create new rules for the nascent industry and reiterated that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will have the power to “remove from the road” any vehicle whose technology poses a safety risk.

The agency specifically noted that certain semi- autonomous driving systems — “ones in which the human continues to monitor the driving environment and perform some of the driving task” — may be subject to recall.

Electric- car maker Tesla Motors has been in the spotlight for a few fatal crashes in Florida and China where its Model S sedans may have engaged the car’s Autopilot partial self- driving system. NHTSA is investigating the Florida incident.

NHTSA administrator Mark Rosekind declined to say whether any action would be taken against the electric automaker.

More broadly, Rosekind said the new rules would require companies making driver- assist tech to determine “how much a driver needs to stay vigilant.”

JUSTIN SULLIVAN, GETTY IMAGES Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, left — shown here with Google executive Eric Schmidt and Google’s self- driving car — has rolled out new rules to help ensure the safety of self- driving car technology.