Driverless Commute

The Driverless Commute: New FCC spectrum proposal would fuel the development of driverless vehicles

Posted on December 9, 2019 By Eric Tanenblatt, Crawford Schneider, Lauren Wilson and Todd Daubert
Categories: Autonomous Vehicles, Driverless Commute

Unlocking the full potential of autonomous transportation will require smart, forward-looking decisions about how to manage the spectrum on which driverless vehicles will rely. A recent announcement from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai shows the United States is preparing for a fully autonomous future. After months of debate, the FCC revealed next steps for re-allocating the 5.9 GHz band for both unlicensed uses and transportation-specific applications with an eye to autonomous fleet deployment.

In an effort to provide predictability for automakers and broadband providers, Chairman Pai announced that the FCC will vote this month on his proposal to initiate a process that would open up the 5.9 GHz spectrum band for new uses. By way of background, the agency first set aside spectrum in what is called the 5.9 GHz band to support transportation uses in 1999.

The Driverless Commute: Autonomous vehicle legislation revving its engine

Posted on November 5, 2019 By Eric Tanenblatt, Crawford Schneider and Andrew Shaw
Categories: Autonomous Vehicles, Driverless Commute

Federal autonomous vehicle legislation is back on the table.

Over the past few months the Republican and Democratic staffs of the House Energy and Commerce and Senate Commerce committees have been holding meetings to hash out bits and pieces of what could, ultimately, form a comprehensive autonomous driving bill. Notably, the bipartisan-bicameral approach has focused, up to this point, on the issues where there is the most consensus: exemptions, testing and evaluation and the establishment of an automated vehicles advisory council. The bipartisan working groups released discussion drafts for each subsection. While exemptions and testing have always been part of the conversation, the Advisory Council, as least as it is presented in the working draft, is a new wrinkle.

The Driverless Commute: Is it still too soon for parking lot deployment? South Korea plans massive smart-road investment ahead of AVs; and European carmakers beginning to bristle at tough regs

Posted on October 18, 2019 By Eric Tanenblatt and James Richardson
Categories: Autonomous Vehicles, Driverless Commute

Welcome again to the Driverless Commute, presented by Dentons, a digest clocking the most important technical, legal and regulatory developments shaping the path to global autonomy.

1. Parking lots: the next great frontier

A decade after Google launched its famous self-driving moonshot, the central question of the technology’s readiness and safety remains an unresolved scramble of ethics and profit.

No one—not car makers, technologists, regulators, or consumer safety advocates—can agree on specific standards of accepted safety for the open-road testing of autonomous vehicles.

The still-high motor vehicle fatality rate, which has been on steady decline in the United States since the 1960s, belies a truth about driving: it’s already a remarkably safe activity.

The Driverless Commute: Product liability law in Germany for Level-3 (high automation) AVs

Posted on September 25, 2019 By Michael Malterer
Categories: Autonomous Vehicles, Driverless Commute

Introduction and overview of applicable law

The success of the upcoming launch of Level 3 (highly automated) vehicles in Germany, targeted for year of 2020, will depend not only on technologically flawless equipment, but also compliance with product liability and safety standards. This briefing provides an overview of a manufacturer’s obligations under product liability, and corresponding tortious producer liability, law in Germany.

Within the framework of manufacturer’s liability for defective products, there are various regulations under which the manufacturer is liable for any damage incurred. The most important civil law principles here are (1) product liability under the Product Liability Act and (2) tortious producer liability under the German Civil Code.

The Driverless Commute: The four policy areas that cities must address to make the autonomous era people-centric; AVs positively last-century bugs; and robo-race car sets world record on speed.

Posted on September 12, 2019 By Eric Tanenblatt and James Richardson
Categories: Autonomous Vehicles, Driverless Commute

1. Cars ruined the American city. Can AVs save it?

Since at least the 15th century, the era’s dominant mode of transportation has always had a way of exerting itself, often unfavorably, on the fabric of cities, but nowhere responded to the automobile with the same ill-considered enthusiasm as the American city, which forfeited one of its most precious public social spaces—its street—in a way that Europeans never did.

Now, urban planners from the United States’ largest cities believe the arrival of autonomous vehicles represents a rare opportunity for car-subservient downtowns to reset the board finally.

This week the National Association of City Transportation Officials, an 81-city coalition that includes New York, Boston, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Seattle, unveiled a 131-page blueprint to refocus contemporary urban planning to take advantage of self-driving cars.

The plan envisions a future of more parks and fewer parking lots by addressing high-capacity transit, smart-city data collection and use, congestion pricing mechanisms, and the delivery of urban freight.

The Driverless Commute: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) release cybersecurity guidance for Internet connected devices

Posted on August 23, 2019 By Eric Tanenblatt, Crawford Schneider and Peter Stockburger
Categories: Driverless Commute

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently released draft standards for IoT cybersecurity that may inform similar efforts in the autonomous vehicle industry. The report, entitled “A Starting Point for IoT Device Manufacturers,” seeks to provide the IoT device industry with a better understanding of necessary and appropriate cybersecurity features. Specifically, it highlights best practices for secure software design and development. NIST is seeking public comment on its proposals through September 30, 2019.

As the broader IoT industry coalesces around specific security practices, automotive and technology companies will gather valuable intelligence on security measures that are fundamental to widespread adoption and public acceptance of autonomous vehicles.

The Driverless Commute: Urban planning nightmares with AV deployment; AV industry’s diversity and inclusion crisis; and how bogus satellite data could hack an AVs operation.

Posted on August 9, 2019 By Eric Tanenblatt and James Richardson
Categories: Autonomous Vehicles, Driverless Commute

1. When AVs are king

Cities were once highly compact, walkable places that blended residences and workplaces and where people commanded primacy. Then the car came along.

Now, the modern American city, sprawling and traffic-plagued, is an ecosystem in complete service to cars. But what if AV deployment invites an even deeper calcification of the cars-first mentality in city centers?

Just imagine sidewalk gates. That was the whacky idea floated by one unnamed “automotive industry official” in a recent New York Times article:

“In New York, the unwritten rule is plain: Cross the street whenever and wherever — just don’t get hit.