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NHTSA warns self-driving makers over interference with emergency responders
NHTSA said it has documented AV incidents where vehicles entered active emergency scenes and blocked routes used by ambulances and firefighters.
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said July 8 that self-driving car companies need to rapidly address a pattern of driverless vehicles interfering with law enforcement and other first responders. According to NHTSA, it has documented multiple instances of AVs driving into active emergency scenes and either blocking paths of ambulances and firefighters or failing to recognize and react to basic safety conditions like flashing lights, flares, smoke, fire, and traffic cones.
NHTSA head Jonathan Morrison told the industry in a letter that the inability of AV systems to detect and appropriately respond to those situations amounts to a functional insufficiency. NHTSA added that an AV that cannot safely interact with first responders poses a danger to the general public.
NHTSA said it will schedule meetings with vehicle developers by the end of the month to solicit solutions, and it called on AV developers and operators to focus on fixing the problem. The agency did not name companies or identify specific incidents in the letter.
Local media in Texas reported a Waymo vehicle in Dallas partially blocked a fire truck route in late May while crews responded to a fire. Waymo also has been associated with other incidents under investigation by NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board, including a January 23 collision in Santa Monica, California, involving a nine-year-old girl, and a separate incident involving AVs passing stopped school buses with their lights activated in violation of Texas law.