Autonomous vehicle technology: A guide for policy makers

Autonomous vehicle technology offers the possibility of fundamentally changing transportation.

Equipping cars and light vehicles with this technology will likely reduce crashes, energy consumption, and pollution—and reduce the costs of congestion. This technology is most easily conceptualized using a five-part continuum suggested by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), with different benefits of the technology realized at different levels of automation:

• Level 0: The human driver is in complete control of all functions of the car.
• Level 1: One function is automated.
• Level 2: More than one function is automated at the same time (e.g., steering and acceleration), but the driver must remain constantly attentive.
• Level 3:The driving functions are sufficiently automated that the driver can safely engage in other activities.
• Level 4:The car can drive itself without a human driver.