Review - HR 3711 Introduced – SELF DRIVE Act

Last month Rep Latta (R,OH) introduce HR 3711, the Safely Ensuring Lives Future Deployment and Research In Vehicle Evolution (SELF DRIVE) Act. The bill clarifies “the Federal role in ensuring the safety of highly automated vehicles as it relates to design, construction, and performance, by encouraging the testing and deployment of such vehicles”. It includes one section concerning cybersecurity of automated driving systems and two cybersecurity mentions in passing. This bill is very similar to HR 8350 that was introduced last September but went nowhere during the closing days of the 116^th Congress.

While Latta is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the primary of three committees to which this bill was referred for consideration, the fact that all eleven of his cosponsors are Republicans would seem to indicate that this is a partisan bill. I do not expect to see this bill considered in Committee, nor do I expect to see it reach the floor of the House.

As important as this topic is quickly becoming, Latta is going to have to work out a bipartisan plan for the regulation of automated vehicles.

For more detailed analysis of cybersecurity provisions, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-3711-introduced - subscription required.