The US Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has announced that the US government will invest nearly $4bn to support development of automated vehicles technology.
US government will include the outlay in its budget proposal for 2017 to support pilot programs to test connected vehicle systems in designated corridors throughout the country.
The ten year proposal revises the existing guidelines and clear administrative hurdle for the development of autonomous vehicle technology.
The government will also work with industry leaders to ensure a common multistate framework for connected and autonomous vehicles.
With this move, the government wants to make roads safer and reduce fatal accidents caused by human error and also to reduce travel delays and to increase the efficiency of automobiles.
According to the US Department of Transportation Secretary Foxx, there are certain milestones to be met in 2016, before the autonomous vehicles to go ahead.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will work with automakers and other stakeholders to develop guidelines on safety deployment and automated vehicles' operation within the next six months.
Within the next six months, NHTSA also needs to work with respective states and to develop state policies for regulation of automated vehicles and achieve consistent national policies.
Secretary Foxx also encouraged automakers to provide requests for interpreting rules where it is necessary to facilitate innovation in technology.
It was also emphasized that wherever interpretation of rules was not sufficient, automakers can provide requests for exemption of those rules to facilitate development of technology.
DOT secretary Foxx said that: "DOT and NHTSA will develop the new tools necessary for this new era of vehicle safety and mobility, and will consider seeking new authorities when they are necessary to ensure that fully autonomous vehicles, including those designed without a human driver in mind, are deployable in large numbers when they are demonstrated to provide an equivalent or higher level of safety than is now available."
