Many of us already drive personal or company vehicles with automated features such as lane departure warning and automatic emergency braking. While automation clearly improves safety, it also presents new issues for safety professionals. Companies need to integrate policies on vehicles with automated features into their current fleet safety management systems. They also need to consider how they’ll manage the more highly-automated vehicles that will be available in the future.
To help safety professionals address these challenges, the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) published the ANSI/ASSP Z15.3 technical report, Management Practices for the Safe Operation of Partially and Fully Automated Vehicles. The report provides guidance for companies to help their workers stay safe on the road as technology advances, and to think ahead to what fully-automated vehicles – true “self-driving” cars – will mean for their fleet safety management practices. The Z15.3 technical report supplements the ANSI/ASSP Z15.1 – 2017 standard, Safe Practices for Motor Vehicle Operations, which remains the comprehensive fleet safety management standard for the nation. NIOSH was a major contributor to the Z15.3 technical report, and is also represented on the Z15.1 standards committee.