U.S. Legislative Issues
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New Rule Proposed to Accelerate Connected Vehicle Technologies
Citing an enormous potential to reduce crashes on U.S. roadways, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has issued a proposed rule that would advance the deployment of connected vehicle technologies throughout the U.S. light vehicle fleet. The December 13 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking would require automakers to include vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication technology on all new light-duty vehicles, which the DOT says will enable a multitude of new crash-avoidance applications that, once fully deployed, could prevent hundreds of thousands of crashes every year by helping vehicles "talk" to each other.
Separately, the Department’s Federal Highway Administration plans to soon issue guidance for Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications, which will help transportation planners integrate the technologies to allow vehicles to "talk" to roadway infrastructure such as traffic lights, stop signs and work zones to improve mobility, reduce congestion and improve safety.
DOT estimates that safety applications enabled by V2V and V2I could eliminate or mitigate the severity of up to 80 percent of non-impaired crashes, including crashes at intersections or while changing lanes.
DOT Secretary Anthony Foxx estimates it could take up to five years before compliance for the rule would take effect.
EPA Rejects Calls to Accelerate Rulemaking for Heavy-Duty Truck NOx Emissions
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced December 20 that the agency was just beginning its work on the more rigorous standards that it says are needed to reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from heavy-duty trucks, buses and other diesel vehicles. The announcement was prompted by calls from a coalition of state governments, air quality districts and environmental groups urging the agency to speed up the timeline for enacting new regulations.
The group of 20 petitioners includes state and local environmental agencies in California, Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Washington that want the agency to develop ultra-low NOx emissions standards for on-road heavy-duty engines that would go into effect with 2022 model year vehicles. The EPA said a compressed timeframe for launching new NOx standards wasn’t feasible, but added that it will "initiate the work necessary to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking with the intention of proposing standards that could begin in model year 2024."
NHTSA Issues "Quiet Car" Safety Standards to Protect Visually Impaired Pedestrians
On December 20, the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a new federal safety standard to help blind and low-vision pedestrians detect the presence, direction and location of hybrid and electric vehicles when they are traveling at low speeds. Under the new rule, all hybrid and electric light vehicles with four wheels and a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,000 pounds or less will be required to make audible noise when traveling in reverse or forward at speeds up to approximately 19 miles per hour.
NHTSA says the new standard will help prevent roughly 2,400 pedestrian injuries each year once all hybrids in the fleet are properly equipped. Manufacturers have until September 1, 2019, to install all new hybrid and electric vehicles with sounds that meet the new federal safety standard. Half of new hybrid and electric vehicles must be in compliance one year before the final deadline.
The new standard, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 141, responds to Congress' mandate in the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act of 2010 that hybrid and electric vehicles meet minimum sound requirements to provide an audible alert for blind and visually-impaired pedestrians.
