The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Administrator, Jonathan Morrison, on Wednesday criticized autonomous vehicles, as well as the companies operating them, following instances of AVs interfering with law enforcement, as well as firefighters’ and paramedics’ operations.
Morrison Demands Fix By the End of July
Morrison, in a letter, said the agency wants companies to deliver fixes by the end of the month, saying that the agency had identified a “clear pattern of driverless AVs interfering with law enforcement and other first responders.”
The problem was a safety shortfall, Morrison said, adding that the agency had received reports of robotaxis entering live incident areas, blocking the paths of ambulances or firefighters, among other problems.
Tesla, Waymo, Zoox, NHTSA and Uber did not immediately respond to Benzinga‘s request for comment.
In the letter, Morrison said that “an AV that cannot safely interact with first responders is a danger to the general public,” adding that NHTSA expected the autonomous driving companies to “prioritize first responder interactions” with AVs.
The NHTSA administrator said that the agency would schedule “meetings with driverless automated driving system developers by month’s end” to discuss possible solutions. Notably, the letter did not mention or single out any particular company/operator.
Waymo Issues Recall
The letter comes as Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) issued multiple recalls of nearly 3,900 Waymo Robotaxis following reports of the vehicles entering flooded areas and construction zones. Waymo also recently announced the end of its partnership with Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE:UBER) in Phoenix.
Meanwhile, Amazon.com Inc.-backed (NASDAQ:AMZN) Zoox recently unveiled its updated Robotaxi, with the company saying it can produce 100 units of the pod-like vehicle at its facility in California. Zoox has completed over 500,000 rides since it rolled out its service in Las Vegas.
Tesla Under Scrutiny
Meanwhile, Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk, as well as the company’s AI lead Ashok Elluswamy, fired back against claims that the company’s autonomous vehicle technology was involved in a fatal crash in Texas. NHTSA, as well as the National Transportation Safety Board, however, have launched probes into the incident.
The agency had earlier announced it was already probing over 3.2 million vehicles over the Full Self-driving (FSD) tech. The probe recently moved its investigation to Engineering Analysis, a stage that usually precedes a recall, according to the law.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by a Benzinga editor.
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