Blog
•
Senators ask about automated driving
Following my recent testimony, Senators Amy Klobuchar, Tammy Duckworth, and Lisa Blunt Rochester asked me thoughtful questions about the relationship between au…
Automated Driving
Blog
•
Opening Statement of Professor Bryant Walker Smith for the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee’s Hearing on Automated Driving (February 4, 2026)
[Watch on YouTube] Thank you for your invitation. I’ll offer seven points. First: American driving is dangerous. Automated driving could help, if we’re caref…
Blog
•
Turquoise lamps on cars that cannot drive themselves
Back in 2011, as Nevada was developing regulations for automated driving, there was debate about whether vehicles should have a special external signal to indic…
Blog
•
Comparing Robotaxis: Baidu's Apollo and Alphabet's Waymo
This comparison between my experience as a passenger in Baidu’s Apollo robotaxis and Alphabet’s Waymo robotaxis is based on multiple rides I took in Wuhan and S…
Blog
•
Over-the-air updates and regulatory recalls
Automakers (including Tesla, Daimer, Ford, and GM) as well as automated-driving developers (including Waymo and Cruise) have recalled vehicles by pushing over-t…
Blog
•
On Cruise's Crash (and Quinn's Report)
Cruise has now released a preliminary report by Quinn Emanuel, the law firm that the company hired to review its response to its infamous October 2023 crash in…
Blog
•
DALL-E Does Palsgraf
A new article, written in 2022 and published in 2023 -- with pictures! The article asks a leading AI tool for image generation to illustrate the facts of a lea…
Blog
•
On Remote Driving
The Law Commission in the United Kingdom recently completed its massive study on domestic legal reform for automated driving. As the UK government works to impl…
Blog
•
Deep in the Weeds of the Levels of Driving Automation Lurks an Ambiguous Minimal Risk Condition
Are you familiar with SAE J3016, the recommended practice that defines, among many other terms, the widely (mis)cited levels of driving automation? You can be!…
Blog
•
Tracking NHTSA's "Driverless Vehicle" Rule
March 30, 2020: NHTSA proposes changing certain federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSS) for certain automated vehicles. January 8, 2021: Elaine Chao an…
Press
•
US lets autonomous vehicle bypass human-driver safety rules
"The approval is the first sign that NHTSA is moving from abstract statements and voluntary standards governing autonomous vehicles to actual regulation, s…
Blog
•
Tesla's Fatal Crash
Tesla can do better than its current public response to the recent fatal crash involving one of its vehicles. I would like to see more introspection, credibilit…