In 2012, standing beside California Gov. Jerry Brown during the signing of a landmark bill that gave the green light to driverless cars, Google co-founder Sergey Brin boldly predicted that the vehicles would be available to the public within five years.
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Technology giant Google, which has been developing some autonomous vehicles without steering wheels or pedals, expressed “grave disappointment” at the new rules, according to the Associated Press.
Self-driving cars are already being tested in California by Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Google, Delphi Automotive, Tesla Motors, Bosch, Nissan, Cruise Automation, BMW, Honda, and most recently, Ford, which this week obtained the permit necessary to let its fully autonomous Ford Fusion Hybrid (pictured) loose on California’s public roads.
Self-driving cars are set to be a significant new technology market within the next few years, as more and more companies look to get involved. Michigan, Nevada, and Texas already allow for the testing of these self-driving cars on their roads but none have provided any guidance on how consumer use of these technologies should be governed. Company officials in the past have also argued over the concept of “human-presence”, and believe extra regulations become redundant if computer programmed cars can follow existing traffic rules better than human drivers.
Google’s self-driving auto program just took a big hit in the state of California.
California has been the testing ground for most of the development, and so regulations in the state are considered to be precedent-setting.
Google is “gravely disappointed” with the proposed rules for self-driving cars from California regulators.
The proposed regulations were announced following months of study by California’s DMV after the state’s legislature stated that it required the DMV to develop regulations for testing and the deployment of autonomous vehicles. Some rules, like requiring manufacturers to receive certification and pass certain cyber security thresholds, were expected. “Manufacturers approved for deployment will initially be issued a three-year deployment permit”, the regulations read.
Google-owned online mapping company Waze in July launched a carpooling pilot programme called RideWith in Israel where commuters pay fellow drivers a small fee for a ride.
In a written statement, Alphabet spokesperson Johnny Luu states: “Safety is our highest priority and primary motivator as we do this”.
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Upcoming public workshops are meant to gather input from industry, consumer and public interest groups, academics, as well as the public, to help improve the quality of the regulations that the DMV says will eventually be adopted for the operation of self-driving vehicles..
