U.S. automakers developing self-driving cars will be allowed more exemptions from certain federal safety rules for testing purposes to help them compete against Chinese rivals, the Transportation Department said Thursday.
The department also said it will streamline crash reporting requirements involving self-driving features and will move toward national rules for the technology to replace a patchwork of state regulations.
“This Administration understands that we’re in a race with China to out-innovate, and the stakes couldn’t be higher,” said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in a statement. “As part of DOT’s innovation agenda, our new framework will slash red tape and move us closer to a single national standard that spurs innovation and prioritizes safety.”
The new exemption procedures will allow U.S. automakers to apply to skip certain safety rules for self-driving vehicles if they are used only for research and other non-commercial purposes. The exemptions were in place previously for foreign, imported vehicles whose home country rules may be different than those in the U.S.
The crash reporting rule being changed has drawn criticism from Trump advisor Elon Musk as onerous and unfair. His car company, Tesla, has reported many of the total crashes under the rule in part because it is the biggest seller of partial self-driving vehicles in the U.S.
Traffic safety watchdogs had feared that the Trump administration would eliminate the reporting rule, but the transportation department statement Thursday emphasized that only the paperwork will change, not the reporting requirement itself.
