U.S. Dept. of Transportation issues new autonomous-vehicle guidelines

It's only a suggestion, the U.S. Dept. of Transportation and its National Highway Traffic Safety Admin. said-and some critics derided-but it's what the auto and tech industries have been anticipating for months: the DOT on Sept. 12 released a new voluntary-guidelines document for autonomous-vehicle development called “Automated Driving Systems 2.0: A Vision for Safety.”

It is expected the document will be viewed as a rulebook and a telegraph of the future direction of federal regulatory posture on automated driving.