Tesla Self-Driving System Faulted by Safety Agency in Crash<br />He said the lack of required safety assessments cedes power to automakers “who have frequently<br />proven they cannot be trusted to protect the public interest in their race for profits.”<br />Automakers and government officials contend that self-driving technology could reduce vehicle accidents<br />and traffic fatalities, which rose by nearly 8 percent in 2015 to more than 35,000 deaths.<br />The Transportation Department unveiled voluntary guidelines for testing autonomous vehicles on Tuesday as<br />part of a broader government effort to encourage automakers’ development of self-driving technology.<br />The guidelines replace policies set down by the Obama administration last year<br />that called for automakers to submit safety assessments of their self-driving models before testing them on public roads.<br />The renewed attention to the Tesla system came as automakers are jockeying to push driverless technologies forward, while lawmakers<br />and regulators scramble to keep pace, with the Trump administration putting forward its approach on Tuesday.<br />Some safety campaigners and consumer groups have been critical of the move toward voluntary rules covering self-driving technology,<br />including the guidelines introduced by Ms. Chao, saying they reduce federal oversight that was already too limited.
