March 21, 2019—The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Friday it was seeking public comment on General Motors’ 15-month-old petition seeking approval to deploy a limited number of vehicles on U.S. roads without steering wheels or other human controls, reported Insurance Journal.
The agency also disclosed that Softbank-backed driverless delivery startup Nuro had also petitioned to deploy a limited number of low-speed, highly automated delivery vehicles intended to be operated without any human occupants.The petitions for exemptions are from U.S. vehicle safety rules that were largely written decades ago with the assumption that human drivers were in control.
The Transportation Department said it has not made “any judgment on the GM petition and will accept public comments for at least 60 days as it seeks input on a detailed list of questions about the issues surrounding deploying autonomous vehicles."