EVwire brief: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is proposing to rewrite parts of the federal vehicle lighting standard for autonomous vehicles without steering wheels or pedals, with the changes also allowing optional cyan lamps that show when a vehicle is driving itself.
The notice of proposed rulemaking covers Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 108 and is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on October 26, opening a 30-day comment period. Under the proposal, the manual control requirements for turn signals, hazard lights and high/low beam switching, as well as the dashboard telltales for turn signals and high beams, would only apply to vehicles with manually operated driving controls.
Tesla community member Spencer (@scotsrule08) pointed to Tesla's Cybercab as one of the vehicles the proposal would cover:
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As per the NHTSA, driverless vehicles would still need a way to operate their turn signals and switch between high and low beams. The difference is that those controls would no longer have to be manual, with the Automated Driving System (ADS) handling them instead. Turn signals on these vehicles would also no longer need to cancel themselves through steering wheel rotation, since there's no steering wheel to rotate.
The NHTSA explained why it sees no need for a replacement self-canceling requirement in a vehicle run entirely by an ADS:
Although NHTSA has considered creating an equivalent requirement based on measurement within the steering system, NHTSA has determined tentatively that such a requirement is unnecessary and overly prescriptive because turn signal activation and cancellation will be programmed within the ADS to comply with traffic laws, and unlike a human driver, the system cannot forget that the turn signals are active.
The hazard warning signal telltale would stay in place for now, as NHTSA says passengers may benefit from knowing when the ADS has switched the hazards on. Vehicles without turn signal telltales would instead need a lamp failure telltale visible from every seat.
NHTSA is also proposing standardized specs for ADS marker lamps, which FMVSS No. 108 currently has no provisions for. Automakers would not be required to fit them, but any vehicle that does would need four to eight cyan lamps, with one or two on the front, each side and the rear, mounted at least 15 inches (38 cm) off the ground.
The lamps would be steady burning and could only switch on when the vehicle is operating without the expectation that an occupant is monitoring the road. NHTSA largely based the specs on SAE International's J3134 standard, and says it picked cyan partly because the color is distinct from the blue used by law enforcement.
Here’s the NHTSA’s filing:
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Context:
The lighting proposal is the latest step in NHTSA's effort to update federal safety standards for vehicles without manually operated driving controls. Earlier this year, the agency published proposals covering FMVSS No. 102 (transmission shift position and starter interlock), Nos. 103 and 104 (windshield defrosting, wiping and washing) and No. 110 (tires and rims).
Until those rules are finalized, driverless vehicles have leaned on exemptions, like the one that cleared Zoox to charge for rides in July, which exempted the company from eight standards and capped its commercial fleet at 2,500 vehicles a year for two years.
The Cybercab's own federal compliance is also in front of NHTSA right now. The agency gave Tesla until October 30 to answer its Cybercab FMVSS special order, which asks how Tesla certified the vehicle to each applicable standard, including ones written with human drivers in mind. One of them is FMVSS No. 135's foot-controlled brake requirement, a rule that would need updating for vehicles like the Cybercab, since it uses brake-by-wire and has no pedals.
Source: NHTSA proposed rule, Sawyer Merritt and Spencer on X
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