STATEMENT:
Because the development of autonomous vehicles will have profound impacts on public health, safety and welfare, it is the position of the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) that regulation must include licensed Professional Engineers in the development of standards, certification, and testing, of such technologies.

DISCUSSION:
The rapid advancement of autonomous vehicle technologies, with the eventual goal to develop driverless or entirely autonomous vehicles presents an exciting phase of the technological advancements of humans. This rapid advancement, however, presents the risks associated with development of advanced technologies to be deployed within an aging infrastructure and on roads occupied by vehicles without this advanced technology.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

1. To ensure the health, safety, and welfare of the public is held paramount in this development and testing, licensed Professional Engineers must be involved in each step of this process to assure transparency. Licensed Professional Engineers should be employed by autonomous vehicle and autonomous technology developers to provide in-house oversight of the development and testing or consulting a third-party licensed Professional Engineer to be used to verify the safety and security of the technology in development and testing.
2. Licensed Professional Engineers must be integrally involved in the comprehensive and coordinated development of local, state, and federal standards that will govern the development, testing, and deployment of these autonomous technologies.
3. Establish minimum federal safety standards for AVs. For additional information, reference NSPE’s “Autonomous Vehicle: A Public Regulatory Policy Guide” for further guidelines to measure safety readiness of autonomous vehicles under consideration for deployment.