By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, July 8 (Reuters) – The head of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Wednesday that self-driving car companies must quickly address a “clear pattern” of driverless vehicles interfering with law enforcement and other first responders.
Jonathan Morrison, who heads the U.S. vehicle regulatory agency, said in a letter to the industry that NHTSA has documented multiple instances of AVs driving into active emergency scenes, and other incidents when the vehicles “blocked the paths of ambulances and firefighters, or failed to recognize and respond to basic safety conditions like flashing lights, flares, smoke, fire, and traffic cones.”
“Let me be clear: the inability to detect and appropriately respond to such situations represents a functional insufficiency,” he said in the letter.
NHTSA said it would schedule meetings with vehicle developers by the end of the month to solicit solutions. It called on AV developers and operators to focus on fixing the problem.
“An AV that cannot safely interact with first responders is a danger to the general public,” the letter said.
NHTSA did not identify any specific incidents, or name the companies receiving the letter.
Local media in Texas reported a Waymo self-driving vehicle in Dallas in late May partially blocked a route fire trucks were using to get to an apartment building on fire.
Waymo did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Other videos have reportedly shown Waymo vehicles blocking an ambulance and driving through an active police scene.
Both NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating separate incidents involving Waymo self-driving vehicles. One involved such vehicles passing stopped school buses with their lights activated in violation of Texas state law.
The other occurred January 23, when a self-driving Waymo struck a nine-year-old girl in a school zone in Santa Monica, California, as she ran across the street from behind a double-parked SUV toward the school.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
