Trump’s Regulators Ease the Path for Self-Driving Cars

Bloomberg discusses President Trump’s upcoming rules for self-driving cars with Marc Scribner.

The Trump administration will alter the course set by the Obama administration on autonomous vehicle policy after industry raised concerns about elements of that initial proposal.

The revised guidance — to be unveiled Tuesday in Michigan by Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao — drops a proposal issued under President Barack Obama that considered new powers for federal safety regulators to police automated vehicle safety, according to a person familiar with the matter. Several companies objected to the expanded authority, such as the ability to approve or reject a self-driving vehicle system before it could be sold. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration lacks that authority now.

The changes come as part of the administration of President Donald Trump’s first formal statement on autonomous vehicles. Despite the shifts in direction, the policy will largely continue the Obama administration’s efforts to expand the testing and review of autonomous vehicles, the person said.

“I don’t expect this to be a sea change,” Marc Scribner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a Washington research group that supports free-market approaches. “It will be in line with previous comments from Secretary Chao that they will be approaching this with a light regulatory touch.”

Read the full article at Bloomberg.