NHTSA asks states to ban general use of autonomous vehicles

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is urging individual states to put the brakes on fully-autonomous vehicles until further research is conducted.

California and Nevada have already approved the use of self-driving vehicles on the states' public roads – with Michigan fast-tracking similar legislation – but the NHTSA issued a new policy statement on Thursday urging states not to allow vehicles to drive on their own. The NHTSA is concerned that an autonomous vehicle could malfunction and not allow for human intervention.

"We believe there are a number of technological issues as well as human performance issues that must be addressed before self-driving vehicles can be made widely available," NHTSA said in a 14-page automated driving policy statement obtained by The Detroit News. "Self-driving vehicle technology is not yet at the stage of sophistication or demonstrated safety capability that it should be authorized for use by members of the public for general driving purposes. Should a state nevertheless decide to permit such non-testing operation of self-driving vehicles, at a minimum, the state should require that a properly licensed driver (i.e., one licensed to drive self-driving vehicles) be seated in the driver’s seat and be available at all times in order to operate the vehicle in situations in which the automated technology is not able to safely control the vehicle."

The NHTSA added that it could change its stance as technology improves.

Although the NHTSA is against handing over all driving responsibilities to cars, the agency supports further testing of self-driving tech. In fact, the NHTSA says it is launching a four-year research project to determine if it should mandate automatic braking – a key part of automated driving that can prevent accidents – on future vehicles.

Google remains the leader in autonomous vehicle research – having logged over 300,000 driverless miles – but several production vehicles, including the all-new Mercedes-Benz S-Class, have the ability to drive themselves during certain driving conditions.