SAFE’s Commission on Autonomous Vehicle Testing and Safety offers recommendations designed to enable information sharing, reduce regulatory overreach, and boost public confidence

Washington, D.C.—Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE) will release a report presenting the findings of the Commission on Autonomous Vehicle Testing and Safety on January 5^th from the CES conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Due to the unique challenges of regulating the rapidly evolving autonomous vehicle (AV) industry, the report outlines clear and actionable best-practices for industry designed to increase collaboration between developers and regulators and ultimately improve public trust in AV technology.

The Commission’s recommendations to improve public trust include:

• Companies should test and deploy AVs on public roads only when AV providers are confident that the vehicle’s performance—accounting for safety measures such as backup drivers—is safer than the average human driver.
• Companies should engage in public disclosure of achieved safety milestones and accompanying validation.
• Companies are encouraged to deploy redundant layers of technology to increase safety beyond any minimum required standard.
• Developers should adequately document and educate users about autonomous features, including their limitations.

The Commission also recommends the establishment of an industry-driven regulatory framework. To accomplish this:

• Autonomous vehicle developers should formally collaborate through a technical data consortium to accelerate AV learning and safety through shared, anonymized information.
• The AV industry should establish objective, practical, quantitative metrics for measuring AV safety.

Please join us on January 5, 2017 in LVCC Room S227A for an exclusive press briefing, which will explore the details of these recommendations and strategies for implementation. Members of the Commission and SAFE staff will be available to answer questions about the Commission’s work and its implications for American energy security. Members include:

• Major General Mark Rosenker, U.S. Air Force (Ret.), Former Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board; Commission Chairman
• Admiral Dennis C. Blair, U.S. Navy (Ret.), Former Director of National Intelligence; Former Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Command
• Paul Brubaker, President and Chief Executive Officer, Alliance for Transportation Innovation
• Robert Lange, Principal and Corporate Vice President, Exponent; Former Executive Director, Product Safety, General Motors
• Cuneyt Oge, President, SAE International

About Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE)

Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE) is an action-oriented, nonpartisan organization that aims to reduce America’s dependence on oil. Near-total dependence on petroleum in the transportation sector undermines the nation’s economic and national security, and constrains U.S. foreign policy. To combat these threats, SAFE advocates for expanded domestic production of U.S. oil and gas resources, continued improvements in vehicle fuel efficiency, and transportation sector innovations including electric vehicles, natural gas trucks, and autonomous vehicles. In 2006, SAFE joined with General P.X. Kelley (Ret.), 28th Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, and Frederick W. Smith, Chairman, President, and CEO of FedEx Corporation, to form the Energy Security Leadership Council (ESLC), a group of business and former military leaders committed to reducing the United States’ dependence on oil. Today, the ESLC is co-chaired by Frederick W. Smith and General James T. Conway (Ret), 34th Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps.

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