Is an Autonomous Vehicle a Roller Coaster or a Hollywood Film? Trust, Safety, and Industry Self-Regulation

Regulation of autonomous vehicles continues to be a daunting task in the United States, and the federal government has not yet succeeded in creating a regulatory scheme that intelligently addresses the risks and benefits of these vehicles. There are multiple reasons for this regulatory lag. Autonomous vehicles are developing at such a rapid pace that lawmakers, who often struggle with technological literacy, struggle to keep up. Additionally, government agencies lack the level of expertise, experience, and data that the industry possesses. Industry self-regulation offers a meaningful alternative for increasing the safety of autonomous vehicles and building consumer trust. The success of self-regulation in two industries, in particular—the U.S. amusement park industry and the Hollywood film industry—suggests that a similar approach could work in the autonomous vehicle industry. First, the U.S. amusement park industry has achieved a remarkably impressive safety record despite the near total absence of regulation in some states and a hands-off approach from the federal government. It has done so by forming industry interest groups and organizations that have promulgated safety standards, best practices, and reporting systems for the industry as a whole. Second, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has managed to stave off government regulation of Hollywood films by creating an industry-administered film rating system that indicates to consumers which films are appropriate for children and which are not. This high-transparency approach has worked, with a strong majority of Americans reporting that they both understand and trust the MPAA ratings system. The central reasons for self-regulation success in these industries also exist in the autonomous vehicle industry. Much like amusement park owners, members of the autonomous vehicle industry have a vested interest in the safety not only of their own vehicles, but also of their competitors’, as an accident involving any company can drive down consumer trust in the industry as a whole. Similarly, much like the film industry, the autonomous vehicle industry can build consumer confidence by offering significantly greater transparency to consumers about the safety of its products, particularly given polling data showing that Americans remain highly skeptical about the safety of autonomous vehicles. By assigning such vehicles clear safety ratings, the industry can counter this suspicion and increase consumer trust. While there are limitations to each of these models and key differences between industries that need to be contemplated carefully, giving the autonomous vehicle industry a meaningful opportunity to self–regulate is a more promising way forward than waiting on government regulation that may never come given the pace of industry innovation and the inherent limits of the law and rulemaking under such challenging circumstances.