“Self-driving cars with no human behind the wheel — or, for that matter, any steering wheel at all — may soon appear on California’s public roads, under regulations state officials proposed Friday,” David R. Baker and Carolyn Said report for The San Francisco Chronicle. “The rules represent a delicate balance, trying to ensure the safety of a new technology many people don’t trust while avoiding tough restrictions that could send car companies fleeing to other states.”
“Until now, California has required all 27 companies testing autonomous cars in the state to have someone in the driver’s seat, ready to take over, when testing on public roads. And those vehicles needed to have steering wheels and brake pedals, even if some self-driving car engineers didn’t consider them necessary,” Baker and Said report. “Both of those requirements would disappear under the new regulations proposed by the California Department of Motor Vehicles.”
“Instead, automakers would need to certify to the state that their own testing — either on closed tracks or through computer modeling — shows the cars are ready to operate on public roads with no one behind the wheel,” Baker and Said report. “And if automakers want to deploy cars without such standard controls as a steering wheel and pedals, they would first need the approval of federal highway safety officials.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Driving at or under the speed limit is going to suck.
We’ll await the “carOS” jailbreaks with bated breath!
SEE ALSO:
Alphabet Inc’s Google says it bears ‘some responsibility’ after self-driving car hit bus – February 29, 2016
U.S. tells Google computers can qualify as drivers – February 10, 2016
Why driverless cars will screech to a halt – February 9, 2016
Google’s self-driving cars hit the road this summer – May 15, 2015
Google acknowledges 11 accidents with its self-driving cars – May 11, 2015
Apple vs. Google in self-driving cars: To map or not to map? – March 6, 2015