NHTSA Orders AV Developers to Fix Emergency Response Interference by End of July
Updated
Updated · TechCrunch · Jul 12
NHTSA Orders AV Developers to Fix Emergency Response Interference by End of July
2 articles · Updated · TechCrunch · Jul 12
Summary
Jonathan Morrison, the NHTSA administrator, told autonomous-vehicle developers it is unacceptable for their vehicles to interfere with first responders or law enforcement and demanded proposed fixes by month-end.
The directive says failure to detect and respond properly at emergency scenes is a functional deficiency, not a rare edge case, reflecting federal concern that the problem is recurring.
Waymo was not named, but the letter went to all companies under the Transportation Department’s standing order as scrutiny intensifies around repeated incidents involving its robotaxis.
San Francisco added fresh pressure this week after Supervisor Bilal Mahmood said he would seek an inquiry into AV impacts on transit and emergency response following July 4 gridlock that left multiple Waymo vehicles needing to be towed.
The move signals a tougher federal posture toward robotaxis even as regulators are separately considering vehicle-rule changes that could ease deployment of fully driverless models without steering wheels or pedals.