State Automated Vehicle Policy: Is it Keeping up with Technology?

Automated vehicle technologies have rapidly developed in the last decade, and fully driverless vehicles are highly anticipated to disrupt the transportation system. Despite recent development, the federal government has failed to implement policies in the transition from human-driven transportation, and automated drivers. In the absence of federal leadership, states have taken on the role of regulating and incentivizing the use of automated technologies. Using the state legislation database from the National Conference of State Legislatures, we categorize the bills legislatures are considering and enacting. We’ve also categorized which steps need to be taken to begin enacting legislation on automated vehicles to ensure that they are safe, and beneficial to society in terms of congestion, emissions, and accessibility.

View the presentation slides here:

About the Speakers

Kelly L. Fleming
Kelly Fleming is a policy analyst with the Policy Institute, where she provides analysis of world-leading research for equitable, economic, sustainable energy, and transportation policy solutions. She holds a B.S. from the Colorado School of Mines and an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Washington in chemical engineering, and previously served as an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the U.S. Department of Energy.

Guest Respondent – Douglas Shinkle
Douglas Shinkle is the Transportation Program Director in the Environment, Energy and Transportation Program at the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). Mr. Shinkle has worked for NCSL for 14 years on transportation, traffic safety, connected and autonomous vehicles and shared mobility issues. During his tenure at NCSL, Douglas has written numerous comprehensive reports on a variety of transportation and traffic safety topics, as well as presented at several national summits and legislative committees. He has organized two large convenings of state transportation legislative leaders from across the country to discuss the latest transportation policy, industry and technology developments. Prior to joining NCSL, Mr. Shinkle worked for a number of elected officials in California and Colorado.

Technology?