Agencies Lack Resources Needed to Regulate Drones, Driverless Cars, Conference Told
Federal regulatory agencies will need more expertise and other resources if they hope to manage the rollout of driverless cars, drones and other emerging technologies, several panelists said during a New America discussion Thursday. Georgetown University Law professor David Vladeck, who headed the FTC's consumer protection bureau for four years ending in 2012, said technology is evolving so quickly that statutes and regulations are outdated and don't map well onto the issues posed by emerging technologies.
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For example, Vladeck said, the FTC didn't have a single technologist when he started, but that capacity was added during his time at the commission. He said it's hard to retain such experts because of salary and because industry tools "dwarf" the government's. Plus, they typically can't talk with outsiders about what their work is, he said.
Vladeck didn't say specifically that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which has regulatory oversight of automated vehicles, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which is developing rules for drones, don't have capacity. But he said generally government needs more regulatory "infrastructure" or capacity to address yesterday's problems and stay current and anticipate tomorrow's technologies to ensure safety and economic security.
Hilary Cain, Toyota director-technology and innovation policy, described the work her company is doing to develop driverless cars, saying the industry is close, but more work is needed. She said even a very low percentage of failures could result in a fatality so NHTSA has very low tolerance if systems don't work as they're supposed to.
Lisa Ellman, a Hogan Lovells drone attorney who previously led a DOJ effort to develop drone policy in the Obama administration, said U.S. policymaking on drones has moved slowly partly because a largely skeptical American public mostly worried about security and privacy has "misperceived" the technology. She also said the FAA is applying manned aircraft regulations and statutes to drones.
Corey Owens, who heads commercial drone maker DJI's public policy division in North America, said two important pieces of long-existing technology that are being outfitted in drones could have major regulatory implications. One is essentially artificial intelligence enabling a drone to go beyond an operator's visual line of sight and the other is sense and avoid technology so it doesn't fly into objects.
The stakes for each technology are "enormous," said Vladeck. For instance, he said the FAA is neither a drone nor privacy agency, but a top issue for drones is how to protect people's privacy. What does the FAA know about that? he asked. "Government ought not to be the speed bump that interferes with the introduction of new technologies, but it ought to be able to understand ... the policy questions that are being raised," he said. It's not just about drones and driverless cars, but also about technologies such as synthetic biology and gene editing, he added.
Cain said other issues also should be discussed, such as how bad actors may use the technology to cause harm. She said she talked with an FBI agent who's concerned that someone could load a bomb onto a driverless car and send it somewhere. She said that's not being talked about as much.