Senate Bill Amendments

The Senate autonomous vehicle (AV) legislation is S. 1885. What follows here is a long, boring post about what is actually in the amendments to the bill. I try to be brief, but sometimes I get opinionated.

There were 26 amendments proposed, yes (a) through (z), but only 20 were accepted. Here are the approved amendments and how they modified the original bill. Please note that I am using the letter designations on a Senate Commerce Committee webpage devoted to the Oct. 4, 2017 markup hearing and not the handwritten numbers on the pdf documents that pop up when you click on the links below.

A as in autonomous, not really

The amendment (a) brings S. 1885 closer to the House bill (discussed here) by throwing in a section about back seat alarms "to address the problem of children left behind in rear designated seating positions."

Valid concern; has nothing to do with AVs.

B is for before

Before granting an exemption renewal, amendment (b) would require that DOT evaluate the exemption and make a safety equivalence finding.

C and D are for never mind - amendments withdrawn.

E is for evaluation report

As part of the SER - safety evaluation report - that HAV (highly automated vehicle) and ADS (automated driving system) manufacturers must submit to DOT, amendment (e) would require data aggregation information about results comparing AV and conventional human-operated vehicle safety.

F is for never mind - amendment withdrawn.

G is for grrrr

Grrrr is for frustration in reading the bill, the amendment, and the statutory change to an existing law. Need a roadmap. Amendment (g) would allow manufacturers to render human-operated vehicle equipment inoperable in legally operated AVs.

H is for handwritten

Yes, boys and girls, our senators went to school in an age when we all learned to use manual writing instruments. Amendment (h) is mostly handwritten and it is intended to ensure that the SAE level - meaning level of automation - of a vehicle is clear and that there are civil monetary penalties if a manufacturer submits a false or misleading SER.

I is for immediately

Amendment (i) will cause someone, maybe a few someones, at DOT to rush to produce an almost immediate report if S. 1885 is enacted: Get, ready, go and produce a report that will cover pretty much everything about AVs and make recommendations. Oh, yes, and that includes convening a panel of "national experts" on everything from MPOs to the environment to staff from national laboratories. The report must be initiated within 60 days and completed within 18 months - when it will be behind the curve by the time it is posted on whatever webpage. Please, this kind of thing is to be expected whenever the word "stakeholders" appears.

J is for jazz - which has nothing whatsoever to do with this amendment

Amendment (j) basically adds the word "programs" to a working group's toolbox of recommendations for consumer education about partially AVs. As in "do not fall asleep, watch movies, or text even though your car is TEMPORARILY driving itself. The car might need you at any moment,"

K is for kids

Remember in olden times when kids took driver education in high school? When it comes to consumer education, the Senate bill will assume that partially AVs are not intuitive and require drivers ed. I hope the senators do not expect anyone to pay attention to drivers ed. I thought that was the class where kids in honors and AP tracks get to meet the athletes and everyone else who is not in their classes. That and gym.

L is for lamb

With crazy people shooting at  crowds from hotel windows, there is one senator thinking expansively about wrongdoing. Amendment (l) inserts "safeguards against misuse" of an AV into the scope of concerns for the HAV Technical Committee.

M and N are for never mind - amendments withdrawn.

O is for oy (This is a G-rated blog.)

Lots of paranoia about cybersecurity. Yes, this is a valid concern, but it seems like terrorists and crazies mostly go the low-tech route for making trouble. Still, here we are with amendment (o), which injects "evaluation of elements of the supply chain to identify and address cybersecurity vulnerabilities."

I hope that the senators are aware of other risks, like automatic weapons, for example.

P is for privacy alert

Amendment (p) has the correct letter as this is a privacy-focused amendment. It would mandate the establishment of an HAV Data Access Advisory Committee within 180 days of enactment. This Committee would report directly to Congress. The amendment would ban any part of the federal government from engaging in rulemaking related to HAV data ownership, control, or access prior to the submission of the Committee's report to Congress.

Membership of the Committee would be comprised of members of particular industries, government institutions, states, transit, law enforcement, consumer groups, fleet managers, and other representatives of interests clearly delineated. No vague "expert" language here. The Senators would want to hear from a broad range of specific players - okay, hate the word - stakeholders.

The deadline for the Committee report would be two years from the Committee's establishment and it may include minority viewpoints. Upon submission of the report, this Committee will dissolve.

Wait! One more study, this time from GAO to determine ways to remove data from used or rented vehicles so that personally identifiable information is washed clean. And GAO should be consulting - oh yes, - stakeholders when conducting the study. The deadline is one year and the study should include recommended legislative action and possible uniform state legislation.

I hope that the Senators are aware that the privacy ship has sailed since all of our web and smartphone activities are tracked, but I like the concern.

Q is for q-onnected (literary license on the spelling)

Amendment (q) seeks input from the HAV Technical Committee envisioned in S. 1885 about vehicle-to-infrastructure  - V2I - technology. I hope that if this provision survives the legislative process and remains in the final bill, that the matter of insufficient maintenance of infrastructure, lane markings, signage, etc. will be addressed when discussing V2I.

R is for Radar, the character from MASH

If you remember the character named Radar, he had an uncanny sixth sense for picking up on things unspoken. Amendment (r) would require the SER - safety evaluation report prepared by manufacturers - to include information about alerting human drivers or operators of partial AVs and HAVs about cyber vulnerabilities.

I imagine we would see the same kind of incomprehensible, long document we see now when we quickly click "I agree" as we avoid reading the privacy policy at every website we visit, you know the agreement where we "agree" to relinquish our privacy.

S is for searchable

Amendment (s), once you scroll past the sections crossed out, would require the creation of a searchable privacy database that would be placed on the NHTSA homepage.  The database would contain a description of personally identifiable and other information collected during the operation of AVs, presumably including where you go, what you're watching, if anything, in the vehicle, or even visual or auditory recordings of what occurs in the vehicles. (You do know that cameras in public streets, buses, and other places already do this type of thing, though they aren't tracking you in quite the same way as your phone or as an AV could.) The SER would have to explain how the information is used, disclosed, "and otherwise handled," as well as the retention period and how the information is destroyed.

Oh yes, the SER should also describe measures taken to protect the information collected, presumably better than Equifax or Yahoo did (but let's be real) and reveal manufacturers' privacy policies (to which we will all click "I agree" without reading).

T is for truly?

Amendment (t) brings the Senate bill closer to the House bill because it inserts a provision requiring DOT to - within three years - promulgate a rule mandating that purchasers - not renters or passengers - of partial AVs or HAVs be furnished with clear, concise (equals comprehensible, presumably) information about the limitations of the machine they are paying for.

Close, but no cigar - The House bill differs slightly in its version of this provision (scroll to "timeline").

So, this is like the pharmaceutical company information that comes with every prescription that says you could die or become an inviting host to some disease or injury, if you take the drug.

U is for ur, are we there yet?

I don't appreciate a long amendment as we near the end of the alphabet. Amendment (u) is three pages long. This amendment tightens up the language in the Senate bill relating to preemption, state authority,  judicial process, and liability. Language about licensing that bans discrimination on the basis of disability is retained.

V is for never mind - amendment withdrawn.

W is for working group

Amendment (w) would slightly change the language about the purview of the working group for consumer education. The amendment would also add to the membership of this working group to include representatives of "cross disability organizations" and "national organizations representing older adults."

X is for xylophone

This is a G-rated blog and really there's a limited number of words that begin with the letter x. Amendment (x) would make clear the makeup of the HAV Technical Committee and add to the required members representatives of national organizations representing people with disabilities and older adults.

Y is for yo, you forgot to include a deadline

Amendment (y) would require the DOT to conduct a study - with no deadline given - and come up with recommendations about ways to encourage manufacturing in the US of ADS and intelligent transportation systems.

Z is for Zzzz

A cure for insomnia has been found and it is reading through 20 amendments to legislation.

Amendment (z) would add a provision mandating that within one year the DOT develop and supply to consumers more cybersecurity information and it would direct manufacturers to point to those resources in vehicle owner's manuals - for the maybe 10 people who read them. I might be overestimating.