A recent report from Carnegie Mellon stated that “the current fuel economy testing procedure does not have a mechanism to evaluate the impacts of AV technology on fuel economy ratings, and subsequent regulations such as Corporate Average Fuel Economy targets.” This inability to measure the efficiency impacts of autonomous vehicles represents a gaping flaw in the regulations. If excluded from fuel economy standards going forward, autonomous vehicles may not achieve their potential to significantly reduce petroleum dependence.

There are already warning signs: the same Carnegie Mellon study showed that certain semi-autonomous features could capture significant fuel savings, but current regulations discount such efficiencies.