GM Still Pushing Cars Without Steering Wheels, Talking With NHTSA

Matt Posky
by Matt Posky

Remember when General Motors talked about delivering an autonomous vehicle, sans steering wheel or pedals, and how the Department of Transportation said Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards basically made it impossible? Well, GM hasn’t given up the fight to disassociate drivers from driving.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has started talks with GM over the automaker’s petition to deploy a limited number of self-driving vehicles on American roads last Friday. Acting NHTSA Administrator James Owens told Reuters that the petition (issued in 2018) is currently under review.

“I expect we’re going to be able to move forward with these petitions soon — as soon as we can,” Owens said, suggesting a final decision would be made in 2020. “This will be a big deal because this will be the first such action that will be taken.”

It’s not the only item under consideration. The federal agency is also examining requests from autonomous startup Nuro aimed at getting delivery vehicles on the road without human support drivers — not that it matters, because they also won’t have a windshield to see through.

From Reuters:

GM Chief Executive Mary Barra and U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao last week met and discussed the petition at a high level, officials said, but significant work remains at the technical level. Owens said NHTSA officials are “crawling through these petitions because we want to make sure” they are at least as safe as cars on the roads.

“There’s a lot of back and forth between us and the companies,” Owens said during a Reuters interview that also included Chao and other Transportation Department officials. “We’re sharing with them thoughts and ideas and concerns. They come back to us with additional information.”

Chao said it is important that the NHTSA take its time in reviewing the GM petition. Chao suggested that some auto industry officials and analysts were too optimistic about the timing for deployment of fully autonomous vehicles.

Both petitions request the ability to field 2,500 vehicles on public roads. GM originally wanted to get them out by the end of 2019; however, the automaker has since stretched its target date to the end time on a college party invite — leaving us with a big fat question mark. Officially, GM says it needs to conduct more testing before commercial deployment is an option. We’ve also heard that the autonomous program isn’t progressing as smoothly as desired — and not just at General Motors.

While the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards probably could use some modernization, navigating the minefields laid by the industry’s efforts to build totally self-driving cars (they aren’t here yet) is going to be an arduous task. For the most part, the Department of Transportation has been very accommodating of AVs in terms of testing — with a modicum of oversight. But allowing automakers to operate outside of established safety standards puts it a pickle, especially now that some of the initial luster of AVs has worn off.

People are no longer dazzled by the prospect of self-driving cars. There’s been too many widely publicized accidents caused by people mistakenly thinking vehicles with advanced driving aids are autonomous, a fatal incident where an autonomous test car struck a pedestrian, and countless reports detailing how it’s going to take longer to get this technology up and running than initially thought.

That said, strides are being made; these systems are always improving. Even if the NHTSA tells GM to suck an egg this time around, it can’t ignore the issue forever. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards will eventually have to be altered ( hopefully to the benefit of drivers) or exemptions will have to be made. Otherwise, autonomous vehicles will have reached a dead end in the United States.

[Image: General Motors]

Matt Posky
Matt Posky

A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.

More by Matt Posky

Comments
Join the conversation
3 of 7 comments
  • Akear Akear on Dec 24, 2019

    The rest of the industry has finally realized autonomous vehicles are pretty much a dead end. GM will realize this too after wasting billions of dollars and falling even further behind in basic automotive technology.

  • Ponchoman49 Ponchoman49 on Dec 27, 2019

    Because GM never spends millions on projects that fail and get shelved right? 8-6-4 fiasco that got shelved a year later save a few limos. The W-body project. Saturn. The 3.4 Dual Twin Cam. The Atlas inline 4-5 and 6 cylinder engine family. Robots that paint each other. The Northstar V8. And more recently the CT6 sedan and the Blackwing twin turbo V8. Yeah I'm going to trust my life with a GM vehicle with no steering wheel or brakes! A company that keeps making the same blunder over and over again for over 50 years. That is the very definition of insanity!

    • 28-Cars-Later 28-Cars-Later on Dec 27, 2019

      My my how did you forget the HT4100? Additional: The reason the 368 continued until MY84 was because the 4100 didn't have the torque to carry the commercial chassis. Then for MY85 RWD they briefly ran the 4100 in the commercial chassis and it was replaced by the Olds 307. We had an MY85 Cadillac Limousine at the shop for a while once, I think it was $1,400 in 2006 with 80Kish miles. I was shocked to discover it was an 4100 under the hood.

  • Lorenzo Well, it was never an off-roader, much less a military vehicle, so let the people with too much money play make believe.
  • EBFlex The best gift would have been a huge bonfire of all the fak mustangs in inventory and shutting down the factory that makes them.Heck, nobody would even have to risk life and limb starting the fire, just park em close together and wait for the super environmentally friendly EV fire to commence.
  • Varezhka Of all the countries to complain about WTO rules violation, especially that related to battery business…
  • Carson D At 1:24 AM, the voyage data recorder (VDR) stopped recording the vessel’s system data, but it was able to continue taping audio. At 1:26 AM, the VDR resumed recording vessel system data. Three minutes later, the Dali collided with the bridge. Nothing suspicious at all. Let's go get some booster shots!
  • Darren Mertz Where's the heater control? Where's the Radio control? Where the bloody speedometer?? In a menu I suppose. How safe is that??? Volvo....
Next