NHTSA calls out autonomous cars for interfering with first responders

The agency is giving autonomous vehicle makers until the end of July to figure out a solution. The US Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is demanding action from autonomous car makers after identifying a clear pattern of driverless AVs interfering with law enforcement and other first responders over the past months. Jonathan Morrison, the agency's administrator, wrote a letter addressing the developers and issuing a call to action. Emergency situations are not rare or edge cases, he wrote, so he wants AV developers and operators focus their resources on fixing the issue immediately. While the NHTSA didn't give specific examples, there have been news about self-driving vehicles getting in the way of ambulances and fire trucks, like in the image above, for years.