I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3401 
To amend chapter 301 of subtitle VI of title 49, United States Code, to 
update or provide new motor vehicle safety standards for highly auto-
mated vehicles, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 26, 2017 
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY (for herself and Mr. PALLONE) introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To amend chapter 301 of subtitle VI of title 49, United 
States Code, to update or provide new motor vehicle 
safety standards for highly automated vehicles, and for 
other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. UPDATED OR NEW MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY 
STANDARDS FOR HIGHLY AUTOMATED VEHI-
CLES. 
(a) AMENDMENT.—Chapter 301 of subtitle VI of title 
49, United States Code, is amended by inserting after sec-
tion 30128 the following new section: 
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‘‘§ 30129. Updated or new motor vehicle safety stand-
ards for highly automated vehicles 
‘‘(a) SAFETY ASSESSMENT CERTIFICATION.— 
‘‘(1) FINAL RULE.—Not later than 24 months 
after the date of the enactment of this section, the 
Secretary of Transportation shall issue a final rule 
requiring the submission of safety assessment certifi-
cations regarding how safety is being addressed by 
each entity developing a highly automated vehicle or 
an automated driving system. Such rule shall in-
clude— 
‘‘(A) a specification of which entities are 
required to submit such certifications; 
‘‘(B) a clear description of the relevant test 
results, data, and other contents required to be 
submitted by such entity, in order to dem-
onstrate that such entity’s vehicles are likely to 
maintain safety, and function as intended and 
contain fail safe features, to be included in such 
certifications; and 
‘‘(C) a specification of the circumstances 
under which such certifications are required to 
be updated or resubmitted. 
‘‘(2) INTERIM REQUIREMENT.—Until the final 
rule issued under paragraph (1) takes effect, safety 
assessment letters shall be submitted to the National 
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Highway Traffic Safety Administration as con-
templated by the Federal Automated Vehicles Policy 
issued in September 2016, or any successor guid-
ance issued on highly automated vehicles requiring a 
safety assessment letter. 
‘‘(3) PERIODIC REVIEW AND UPDATING.—Not 
later than 5 years after the date on which the final 
rule is issued under paragraph (1), and not less fre-
quently than every 5 years thereafter, the Secretary 
shall— 
‘‘(A) review such rule; and 
‘‘(B) update such rule if the Secretary con-
siders it necessary. 
‘‘(4) RULES OF CONSTRUCTION.— 
‘‘(A) NO CONDITIONS ON DEPLOYMENT.— 
Nothing in this subsection may be construed to 
limit or affect the Secretary’s authority under 
any other provision of law. The Secretary may 
not condition deployment or testing of highly 
automated vehicles on review of safety assess-
ment certifications. 
‘‘(B) NO NEW AUTHORITIES.—No new au-
thorities are granted to the Secretary under 
this section other than the promulgation of the 
rule pursuant to paragraph (1). 
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‘‘(b) REVIEW AND RESEARCH.—To accommodate the 
development and deployment of highly automated vehicles 
and to ensure the safety and security of highly automated 
vehicles and motor vehicles and others that will share the 
roads with highly automated vehicles, not later than 180 
days after the date of the enactment of this section, the 
Secretary shall— 
‘‘(1) initiate or continue a review of the Federal 
motor vehicle safety standards in effect on such date 
of enactment; and 
‘‘(2) initiate or continue research regarding new 
Federal motor vehicle safety standards. 
‘‘(c) RULEMAKING AND SAFETY PRIORITY PLAN.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 
the date of enactment of this section, the Secretary 
shall make available to the public and submit to the 
Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House 
of Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, 
Science, and Transportation of the Senate a rule-
making and safety priority plan, as necessary to ac-
commodate the development and deployment of high-
ly automated vehicles and to ensure the safety and 
security of highly automated vehicles and motor ve-
hicles and others that will share the roads with high-
ly automated vehicles, to— 
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‘‘(A) update the motor vehicle safety 
standards in effect on such date of enactment; 
‘‘(B) issue new motor vehicle safety stand-
ards; and 
‘‘(C) consider how objective ranges in per-
formance standards could be used to test motor 
vehicle safety standards, which safety standards 
would be appropriate for such testing, and 
whether additional authority would facilitate 
such testing. 
‘‘(2) INCLUSION OF PRIORITIES.— 
‘‘(A) PRIORITIES.—The plan required by 
paragraph (1) shall detail the overall priorities 
of the National Highway Traffic Safety Admin-
istration for the 5 years following the issuance 
of the plan, including both priorities with re-
spect to highly automated vehicles and priorities 
with respect to other safety initiatives of the 
Administration, in order to meet the Nation’s 
motor vehicle safety challenges. 
‘‘(B) IDENTIFICATION OF ELEMENTS THAT 
MAY REQUIRE STANDARDS.—For highly auto-
mated vehicles, the National Highway Traffic 
Safety Administration should identify elements 
that may require performance standards includ-
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ing human machine interface and sensors and 
actuators, and consider process and procedure 
standards for software and cybersecurity as 
necessary. 
‘‘(3) PERIODIC UPDATING.—The plan required 
by paragraph (1) shall be updated every 2 years, or 
more frequently if the Secretary considers it nec-
essary. 
‘‘(d) RULEMAKING PROCEEDINGS ON UPDATED OR 
NEW MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY STANDARDS.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 18 months 
after the date of enactment of this section, the Sec-
retary shall initiate the first rulemaking proceeding 
in accordance with the rulemaking and safety pri-
ority plan required by subsection (c). 
‘‘(2) PRIORITIZATION
OF
SUBSEQUENT
PRO-
CEEDINGS.—The Secretary shall continue initiating 
rulemaking proceedings in accordance with such 
plan. The Secretary may change at any time those 
priorities to address matters the Secretary considers 
of greater priority. If the Secretary makes such a 
change, the Secretary shall complete an interim up-
date of the priority plan, make such update available 
to the public, and submit such update to the Com-
mittee on Energy and Commerce of the House of 
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Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, 
Science, and Transportation of the Senate.’’. 
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The analysis for chap-
ter 301 of subtitle VI of title 49, United States Code, is 
amended by inserting after the item relating to section 
30128 the following new item: 
‘‘30129. Updated or new motor vehicle safety standards for highly auto-
mated vehicles.’’. 
(c) DEFINITIONS.—Section 30102 of title 49, United 
States Code, is amended— 
(1) in subsection (a)— 
(A) 
by 
redesignating 
paragraphs 
(1) 
through (13) as paragraphs (2), (3), (4), (5), 
(8), (9), (10), (11), (12), (13), (15), (16), and 
(17), respectively; 
(B) by inserting before paragraph (2) (as 
so redesignated) the following: 
‘‘(1) ‘automated driving system’ means the 
hardware and software that are collectively capable 
of performing the entire dynamic driving task on a 
sustained basis, regardless of whether such system is 
limited to a specific operational design domain.’’; 
(C) by inserting after paragraph (5) (as so 
redesignated) the following: 
‘‘(6) ‘dynamic driving task’ means all of the 
real time operational and tactical functions required 
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to operate a vehicle in on-road traffic, excluding the 
strategic functions such as trip scheduling and selec-
tion of destinations and waypoints, and including— 
‘‘(A) lateral vehicle motion control via 
steering; 
‘‘(B) longitudinal vehicle motion control 
via acceleration and deceleration; 
‘‘(C) monitoring the driving environment 
via object and event detection, recognition, clas-
sification, and response preparation; 
‘‘(D) object and event response execution; 
‘‘(E) maneuver planning; and 
‘‘(F) enhancing conspicuity via lighting, 
signaling, and gesturing. 
‘‘(7) ‘highly automated vehicle’— 
‘‘(A) means a motor vehicle equipped with 
an automated driving system; and 
‘‘(B) does not include a commercial motor 
vehicle (as defined in section 31101).’’; and 
(D) by inserting after paragraph (13) (as 
so redesignated) the following: 
‘‘(14) ‘operational design domain’ means the 
specific conditions under which a given driving auto-
mation system or feature thereof is designed to func-
tion.’’; and 
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(2) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(c) REVISIONS TO CERTAIN DEFINITIONS.— 
‘‘(1) If SAE International (or its successor or-
ganization) revises the definition of any of the terms 
defined in paragraph (1), (6), or (14) of subsection 
(a) in Recommended Practice Report J3016, it shall 
notify the Secretary of the revision. The Secretary 
shall publish a notice in the Federal Register to in-
form the public of the new definition unless, within 
90 days after receiving notice of the new definition 
and after opening a period for public comment on 
the new definition, the Secretary notifies SAE Inter-
national (or its successor organization) that the Sec-
retary has determined that the new definition does 
not meet the need for motor vehicle safety, or is oth-
erwise inconsistent with the purposes of this chapter. 
If the Secretary so notifies SAE International (or its 
successor organization), the existing definition in 
subsection (a) shall remain in effect. 
‘‘(2) If the Secretary does not reject a defini-
tion revised by SAE International (or its successor 
organization) as described in paragraph (1), the Sec-
retary shall promptly make any conforming amend-
ments to the regulations and standards of the Sec-
retary that are necessary. The revised definition 
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shall apply for purposes of this chapter. The require-
ments of section 553 of title 5 shall not apply to the 
making of any such conforming amendments. 
‘‘(3) Pursuant to section 553 of title 5, the Sec-
retary may update any of the definitions in para-
graph (1), (6), or (14) of subsection (a) if the Sec-
retary determines that materially changed cir-
cumstances regarding highly automated vehicles 
have impacted motor vehicle safety such that the 
definitions need to be updated to reflect such cir-
cumstances.’’. 
SEC. 2. HEADLAMPS. 
(a) SAFETY RESEARCH INITIATIVE.—Not later than 
2 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the Sec-
retary of Transportation shall complete research into the 
development of updated motor vehicle safety standards or 
performance requirements for motor vehicle headlamps 
that would improve the performance of headlamps and im-
prove overall safety. 
(b) RULEMAKING OR REPORT.— 
(1) RULEMAKING.—After the completion of the 
research required by subsection (a), the Secretary 
shall initiate a rulemaking proceeding to revise the 
motor vehicle safety standards regarding headlamps 
if the Secretary determines that a revision of the 
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