Michael Martinez:

Connected and driverless vehicles may be the future, but local and federal agencies are still working out how to regulate safety and privacy concerns in high-tech cars and trucks.

Speaking at a panel on the first day of the Center for Automotive Research’s annual Management Briefing Seminars held near Traverse City, Nat Beuse, associate administrator of vehicle safety research at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said the agency it trying to outline its vision for connected and automated vehicles.

That includes regulating everything from park-assist features to crash-warning systems.

“One of the fundamental things we have to address is how to test these systems to make sure they’re safe and reliable,” Beuse said. “There are some serious questions that need to be answered before we can say ‘Yeah, that’s a good idea.’”

He said NHTSA is working with manufacturers and will soon release a report outlining its latest thinking on performance metrics. After that, NHTSA will spell out how it will regulate driverless cars.