Oct. 6, 2017—The Senate Commerce Committee included a vehicle data access and control amendment in the “American Vision for Safer Transportation through Advancement of Revolutionary Technologies” (AV START) Act (S 1885), the Auto Care Association (ACA) reports.
The amendment sponsored by Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) requires that the Department of Transportation convene a federal advisory committee comprised of stakeholders to provide recommendations to Congress “with respect to the ownership of, control of, or access to, information or data that vehicles collect, generate, record, or store in an electronic form that is retrieved from a highly automated vehicle or automated driving system.”
“The inclusion of the data access and control amendment is an important step in the industry’s efforts to obtain direct access to data generated by embedded vehicle telematics systems,” said Bill Hanvey, president and CEO of the ACA.
While the ACA was discussing issues relevant to the auto care industry, as FenderBender noted in its October issue, telematics and connected vehicles will also take the collision industry by storm soon enough.
ACA members held more than 120 meetings with policymakers and staffers, discussing key facts, figures and implications of current and future legislation impacting the aftermarket. Topics included the control of vehicle data, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and Tax Reform.
The S 1885 bill is intended to advance efforts to improve roadway safety through the deployment of self-driving vehicles. The bill with the data access amendment now moves to the Senate floor where the association has vowed to work for its approval.