US House passes bill for self-driving vehicle road testing

The US House has passed a bill which will pave the way for more widespread test of autonomous vehicles on US roads. The bill – entitled the “Safely Ensuring Lives Future Deployment and Research In Vehicle Evolution Act” [H.R. 3388] or “SELF DRIVE Act, for short – passed on a voice vote yesterday (6 September). Amongst other measures, the bill would enable the the federal government authority to exempt automakers from some safety standards that are not applicable to the technology, and also allow for far more self-driving cars to get on the roads.

The bill would permit the deployment of up to 25,000 self-driving vehicles in its first year, rising to 100,000 vehicles annually in the third year. This would be a significant increase on the number of vehicles that have been tested on US roads so far (through agreements with various state-level bodies).

The US Senate’s Commerce committee are reportedly working on a Senate bill for autonomous vehicles.