Electronic signatures are permitted on all odometer disclosures, U.S. auto safety regulators confirmed Tuesday, a clarification that is crucial to the movement to digitize title and registration processes.
E-signatures on physical odometer discloser documents are lawful under a 2019 rule, NHTSA told online used-car retailer Carvana in a letter of interpretation Tuesday. Carvana requested the clarification because of confusion among states on the extent to which virtual disclosures were permitted under NHTSA’s 2019 rule.
During a vehicle transfer the previous owner is required to share the total distance traveled by the vehicle prior to a sale. Before NHTSA’s rule, this disclosure had to be signed by all parties on paper.
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The original rule, however, “didn’t really account for what’s emerged, which is the hybrid process in the middle, which is people taking paper documents and making them digital for electronic signatures,” Tony Hall, Carvana’s senior manager of government affairs, told Automotive News. “What that resulted in was a bunch of [states] saying, ‘We don’t think the regulations allow that.’ ”
Carvana is a founding member of the eSTART — or Electronic Secure Title and Registration Transformation — Coalition, which launched in March to bring awareness to the potential for electronic title and registration processes. NHTSA’s clarification allowing for e-signatures on physical disclosures is a critical step for that movement, Hall said.
A lot of the states thought “If we can’t do e-signatures [for odometer documentation], we’re not going to allow e-signatures for anything else, it’s pointless,” he said. “Now that that’s gone, it truly can be where states can say, ‘Go and do what you want, to do e signatures for everything.”
Only 12 states allow electronic signatures on all vehicle title and registration documents as of March.
Source: autonews.com