Competitive Enterprise Institute criticizes proposed vehicle-to-vehicle communication rules

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) recently criticized the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for its proposed rule on vehicle-to-vehicle communications, which the nonprofit public interest group called unnecessary and trivial.

“It is extremely disappointing to see the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration try to push through its highly controversial proposed vehicle-to-vehicle communications mandate in the final weeks of the Obama administration,” CEI Research Fellow Marc Scribner said. “The concerns that the Competitive Enterprise Institute raised to the agency in 2014 remain unresolved. As NHTSA readily admits, hypothetical safety benefits of the mandate will be trivial for the next 15 years, at which point far superior automated vehicle technology may be deployed to consumers.”

CEI said the regulation stands to negatively affect other safety technologies, which would potentially do more to improve safety.

“The only accomplishment of this all-pain, no-gain mandate will be a large misallocation of resources away from more promising safety technologies, along with possible delays in their introduction, which would result in more preventable highway crashes and deaths,” Scribner said. “The incoming administration should immediately withdraw this dangerous proposed rule.”