Federal order requires auto manufacturers and autonomous vehicle companies to report serious crashes in vehicles equipped with driving automation technologies, to help track safety trends, identify risks, and develop sensible rules to protect the public
Program marked by corporate underreporting should be made stronger, fairer, and more efficient—not eliminated—to help people stay safe on our roads
WASHINGTON, DC—Consumer Reports (CR) is calling on federal regulators and the incoming administration to keep and improve a vital program that requires auto manufacturers and autonomous vehicle (AV) companies to report serious crashes in vehicles equipped with driving automation technologies.
This program overseen by the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) aims to collect data about crashes in cars with active driving assistance or automated driving systems with the goal of helping to track safety trends, identify risks, and develop performance standards for these emerging technologies. One of the President-elect’s transition teams reportedly recommended elimination of the program, according to Reuters.
“Without robust crash reporting requirements, we’d lose an important tool for understanding and improving the safety of new driving technologies,” said Cooper Lohr, senior policy analyst for transportation and safety at Consumer Reports. “As the Senate considers the nomination of a new Transportation Secretary, now is the time to ensure we’re asking the right questions about how we want emerging driving technologies like AVs to be regulated. The reporting requirement is a key piece of that puzzle, providing oversight and consumer transparency for technologies that are still so new and whose impacts we’re only beginning to understand. Rather than doing away with this program, the Department of Transportation should focus on strengthening, streamlining, and improving it to ensure it works better for everyone.”
This crash reporting program under NHTSA Standing General Order 2021-01 requires manufacturers and operators of vehicles equipped with driving automation systems—including both autonomous vehicles under development, as well as consumer-market vehicles with Level 2 active driving assistance features that combine lane centering and speed control—to report certain crashes to the agency. Specifically, crashes must be reported that happen during or after these systems are used and that involve a hospital-treated injury, a fatality, a vehicle tow-away, an airbag deployment, or a vulnerable road user such as a pedestrian or bicyclist.
This information can provide crucial insights into how these emerging technologies perform in real-world conditions and help identify safety risks before they lead to widespread harm. However, many companies deploying driving automation technologies have drastically underreported crashes, leaving regulators and the public with an incomplete understanding of safety performance on the roads. CR thinks addressing the issues that lead to underreporting and increasing company participation should be the priority—not removing the program entirely.
Contact: Michael McCauley, michael.mccauley@consumer.org