WASHINGTON: Automakers and technology companies working on autonomous vehicles could begin sharing data about crashes and near-misses later this year, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s outgoing chief said.
In its guidance on self-driving cars released in September, NHTSA called on companies working on the vehicles, such as Uber Technologies Inc., Tesla Motors Inc. and Ford Motor Co., to share data about so-called edge cases.
Those are the most challenging scenarios faced by their automated vehicles in the real-world, often involving a collision.
NHTSA administrator Mark Rosekind, who will leave his post on Friday, said in an interview here that the agency has been discussing data sharing with carmakers and technology companies. Rosekind said he “wouldn’t be surprised” to see a pilot programme to test a potential data-sharing framework in the works or in place later this year.
NHTSA’s autonomous vehicle deployment guidance is non-binding, but if companies agree to share data with their competitors, it would mark a significant change for technology companies and automakers who guard their data fiercely.
”Whatever that circumstance is should be shared with absolutely everybody else, and no other vehicle makes the same mistake,” he said. “In an autonomous vehicle, that should happen only once.”
Rosekind said the agency has been refining the types of data it wants to be shared, acknowledging concerns of companies about sharing confidential business information. He drew a line between data necessary to understand crash scenarios such as speed and direction, and commercially-sensitive data.
