Daniel Smith

Daniel Smith

Daniel Smith is Waymo’s Deputy General Counsel for regulatory and compliance matters. Waymo is a leader in the development and deployment of SAE Level 4 automated driving systems.  Dan and his team provide legal advice on the range of regulatory issues related to automated vehicles at the state, national and international levels. His team also implements Waymo’s regulatory compliance program.

Dan is a member of SAE’s Task Force on Taxonomy and Definitions for automated driving, where he has helped develop the current version of J3016 and is a member of the SAE/ISO joint working group that is developing revisions to that document.  For the last few years, Dan has represented SAE in the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s development of regulations for the safety of automated vehicles.

Prior to joining the Google Self-Driving Car Project (now Waymo) in 2015, Dan had a 37-year government career with the U.S. Department of Transportation. He served at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as the Associate Administrator for Enforcement and in the last five years of his government career he served as NHTSA’s Senior Associate Administrator for Vehicle Safety.  In that role, he managed NHTSA’s rulemaking, enforcement, research and data activities.