U.S. Senate To Hold November 20 Hearing On Testing, Deployment Of Self-Driving Cars

The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee will hold a Nov. 20 hearing on the testing and deployment of self-driving vehicles that will include top U.S. safety officials, as Congress has struggled to pass legislation on autonomous vehicles.

The hearing will come one day after the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) meets to determine the probable cause of a March 2018 Uber Technologies Inc self-driving vehicle crash that killed a pedestrian in Arizona.

Documents made public by the NTSB last week show Uber’s system had significant flaws and was not programmed to detect a jaywalking pedestrian.

The hearing will include NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt, acting National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator (NHTSA) James Owens, and top U.S. Transportation Department policy official Joel Szabat.

The NTSB may use the findings from the first fatal self-driving car accident to make recommendations that could affect how the entire industry addresses self-driving software issues, or to regulators about how to better oversee the industry.