Autonomous Vehicle Accessibility Act/AV Accessibility Act

• Authority: United States Congress
• Parent authority: Federal government
• Jurisdiction: United States
• Collections: U.S. federal laws
• Most recent activity: Defunct
• Most recent activity date: 2025-01-03

Risk subdomain coverage

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the risk subdomain are described.

• Unfair discrimination and misrepresentation
• Unequal performance across groups
• Governance failure

All other risk subdomains had no coverage in this document.

Risk Coverage Summary

The document has minimal coverage of risk domains, with primary focus on discrimination (1.1) and unequal performance (1.3) related to disability access. There is implicit coverage of governance failure (6.5) through regulatory mechanisms. The document does not substantially address AI system safety, security, misinformation, malicious actors, or most socioeconomic risks.

Sector coverage

Good coverage — Comprehensive governance measures or mitigations with clear procedures relating to the sector are explicitly described.

• Trade, Transportation & Utilities
• Public Administration (excl. National Security)

Minimal coverage — Brief mention but no specific mitigations, recommendations or governance measures relating to the sector are described.

• Information
• Scientific Research & Development Services

All other sectors had no coverage in this document.

Sectors Summary

The document primarily governs the Trade, Transportation and Utilities sector through regulation of ride-hail autonomous vehicle services. It also has implications for Public Administration through state licensing requirements and federal infrastructure planning.

Legislative Status

Hard Law

Legislative Status Summary

This is a binding federal statute enacted by the United States Congress with mandatory obligations on states and federal agencies, including prohibition of discriminatory licensing and authorization of federal appropriations.

Actors

Proposer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: United States Congress
• Summary: The document is titled as an 'Act' and follows standard federal legislative format, indicating it was proposed and enacted by the United States Congress.

Target

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor, AI_Deployer
• Entities: States (state licensing authorities); operators of ADS-equipped vehicles; ride-hail service providers
• Summary: The Act primarily targets state governments that issue licenses for ADS-equipped vehicles, and implicitly regulates deployers of ride-hail ADS-equipped vehicles through the licensing prohibition.

Enforcer

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: Department of Transportation; Federal courts (through ADA Title II enforcement)
• Summary: The Secretary of Transportation is designated to conduct the infrastructure study and adopt SAE definitions. Enforcement of the non-discrimination provision would follow Americans with Disabilities Act Title II enforcement mechanisms through federal courts.

Monitor

• Entity Types: AI_Governance_Actor
• Entities: National Academies; Department of Transportation
• Summary: The National Academies is designated to conduct a study on accessible infrastructure for ADS-equipped vehicles, which serves a monitoring and assessment function. The Secretary of Transportation oversees this study.

AI Lifecycle Stages

Lifecycle stages covered by the documents, as defined in the OECD Framework for the Classification of AI Systems

• Deploy
• Operate and Monitor

AI Lifecycle Summary

The document primarily addresses the Deploy and Operate and Monitor stages of the AI lifecycle for autonomous vehicles. It focuses on deployment conditions (non-discriminatory licensing) and operational monitoring (infrastructure study for accessibility). There is minimal coverage of earlier lifecycle stages.

Technical Scope

Terms relating to technical scope that are mentioned or implicitly referenced in the document

• AI Systems
• Task-specific AI

Technical Scope Summary

The document explicitly covers ADS-equipped vehicles (AI systems) operating at SAE Levels 4 and 5, which represent highly automated and fully automated driving systems. It does not mention AI models, foundation models, generative AI, or compute thresholds. The focus is on task-specific autonomous driving systems deployed in ride-hail services.