Cybersecurity Questions Swirl Around Autonomous Vehicle Bills

Bloomberg BNA discusses autonomous vehicle regulations with Marc Scribner.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee plans to mark up a bill July 27 that would regulate autonomous vehicles, amid questions about whether lawmakers should set cybersecurity standards for the emerging technology.

U.S. drivers may be slow to adopt autonomous vehicles being developed by companies such as Ford Motor Co. and Tesla Inc. because of worries about hacks that could result in vehicle theft or harm to occupants, consumer surveys have shown. Cybersecurity fears are second only to worries about perceived higher vehicle expenses among barriers to consumer adoption, according to a September 2016 survey by Kelley Blue Book, a vehicle research and valuation company.

Marc Scribner, a fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said the gaps in cybersecurity policy in an agency draft rule issued on connected cars in 2016 is cause for concern that NHTSA won’t be able to meet the challenge of writing autonomous vehicle cybersecurity standards.

“I think it’s very naive of Congress to think that they can just fix this with more legislation, especially charging an agency to do more, when it’s proven that it can’t do what it’s supposed to be doing right now,” Scribner told Bloomberg BNA.

Read the full article at Bloomberg BNA.