More than a year after General Motors Co. submitted exemption requests for its fully autonomous vehicles to drive on U.S. roads, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued a 60-day public comment period over the proposition.

GM is proposing exemptions from a few federal motor vehicle safety standards for a fully autonomous and zero-emission car fleet that lacks steering wheels, manual transmissions and foot pedals for braking or accelerating.  Experts said that while the request represents an advancement of driverless cars, there is still a long way to go—and many legal issues to consider—before such technology hits the road. 

“This petition has been pending for more than 14 months, so the fact that NHTSA has finally published the exemption [request] and asked for public comment is no small step. But at the same time, federal approval for the exemption isn't guaranteed,” said Weinberg, Wheeler, Hudgins, Gunn & Dial partner Johnny Friedman. 

One of the most pressing issues that need to be considered is how to handle the shift in liability that driverless cars pose.  Currently, if a car accident occurs, a person's driving decisions are judged by a negligence standard of if they acted as a reasonable driver would in that situation, said L.A.-based Alston & Bird partner Todd Benoff.

“If a self-driving car gets into an accident, it will be judged by a much higher standard: strict liability,” wrote Benoff in an email. “This means that the car could have best-in-class technology and still be found to be 'defective.' So if a self-driving car crashes into a human-driven one, you could have two completely different sets of rules for the drivers of each vehicle. This is a problem that I believe lawmakers need to address.”

Sarah Wilson, a Covington & Burling partner and former U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge, added that autonomous vehicles would create an intricate liability assessment.

“It'll be a more complicated liability analysis when a car is fully autonomous and there is an accident, because you'll have to figure out who is all at fault, or which system is at fault [or] if it's [the] hardware or software,” Wilson said.

“The focus will be whether the autonomous vehicle manufacturer or component part supplier sold a vehicle or component that was defective, unreasonably dangerous or failed to perform reasonable to industry standard,” Friedman added. 

As new technology develops, manufacturers will likely watch GM's exemption request closely to see if driverless cars will become a reality.

The NHTSA noted GM's exemption request is “an important case of first impression” and that “other petitions for the exemption of other vehicles with [an automated driving system] are expected in the coming years.”

GM contends its autonomous vehicles shouldn't be held to certain federal standards, including having a steering wheel, pedals, upper car beams and other current requirements because such features would be useless in the absence of a human driver. However, GM said its requested exemptions are consistent with the Safety Act and public interest in advancing the development or evaluation of a low-emission car and wouldn't “unreasonably” reduce the safety of that vehicle.

The NHTSA's questions for public comment over the exemption include deciding what studies, data, assumptions, scientific reasoning and methodologies are needed for it to evaluate and compare GM's autonomous vehicles to its traditional cars' effectiveness and safety.