SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Consumer Watchdog today called on Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind to “slam the revolving door” with the robot car industry shut with a written commitment that they will not work as an employee or consultant to developers of self-driving autonomous vehicles for at least seven years after leaving their respective positions.“Slam shut the revolving door that has become the reward for taking a top job at National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Failure to do so will leave the public with the troubling perception that the revised autonomous vehicle policies expected to be released in July have been crafted with an eye focused on your future employment prospects rather than on the public interest,” wrote John M. Simpson Consumer Watchdog Privacy Project Director in a letter to the two officials.
At least four former high-ranking NHTSA officials are now working on behalf of Google’s self-driving car project, according to Watchdog.
According to the consumer group, “Foxx and Rosekind have been pressing to deploy autonomous vehicle technology rapidly. Last December the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that the autonomous technology controlling a self-driving robot car could be considered to be the driver.
“In January Foxx said NHTSA would update its autonomous vehicle policy in six months. Foxx encouraged manufacturers to submit requests for use of NHTSA’s exemption authority to allow the deployment of fully autonomous vehicles.”
Consumer Watchdog’s letter said former NHTSA Administrator David L. Strickland is serving as counsel and spokesman for the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets, comprising Google, Lyft, Uber, Ford and Volvo and that Ron Medford, former deputy director of NHTSA, is director of safety for Google’s self-driving car program. It also said Chan Lieu, who served as director of government affairs, policy and strategic planning at NHTSA, is at Venable, LLP, like Strickland and lobbies for Google and that Daniel Smith, who ran NHTSA’s Office of Vehicle Safety, is now a Google consultant.
From 1984 to 2010, according to USA Today, the Department of Transportation inspector general found that 40 officials left the safety agency for jobs with automakers, their law firms or auto industry consultants. The group included four administrators, two deputy administrators, seven associate administrators and two chief counsels. In addition, 23 auto industry executives moved into top NHTSA jobs from 1999 to 2010.
Consumer Watchdog in a news release said it supports autonomous vehicle policies, such as those proposed by the California Department of Motor Vehicles, that require a driver behind a steering wheel and brake pedal capable of assuming control of the self-driving robot technology when something goes wrong.
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