HR 3876 Introduced – Autonomous Vehicle Report

On Monday Rep. Meng (D,NY) introduced HR 3876, the Autonomous Vehicle Privacy Protection Act of 2015. The bill would require the GAO to publish a public report on the readiness of the DOT to address autonomous vehicle technology challenges.

The only thing specifically required of the report is that it should address “consumer privacy protections” {§2}.

Moving Forward

Meng is not a member of the House Transportation Committee so she is unlikely to have the pull necessary to have this bill considered in Committee. If this bill were to make it to the floor of the House there is nothing in the very short bill that would draw organized opposition. I expect that it would be considered under suspension of the rules and would pass with bipartisan support.

Commentary

Most of the concern about cybersecurity in Congress is related to the security of personal information, not operations security. This bill reflects that limited level of cybersecurity awareness. I would really think that ensuring that the control system is safe from outside interruption or control should be a higher priority than protecting the limited amount of personal information that can be found in the computer systems in autonomous vehicles.