The state’s Department of Motor Vehicles on Wednesday issued a draft of potential regulations for putting regular people behind the wheel of autonomous vehicles. Any autonomous vehicles deployed would have to pass inspection by an independent, third-party testing organization, and a licensed driver would have to be in the vehicle at all times to be “capable of taking control in the event of a technology failure or other emergency”.
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Under the proposal, a three-year deployment permit will be granted to the manufacturers of self-driving cars, to enable them to lease their cars to customers, but not sell them.
California is not quite ready to let self-driving cars hit the road on their own. Google Inc plans to make its self-driving cars unit, which will offer rides for hire, a stand-alone business under the Alphabet Inc corporate umbrella next year, a person briefed on the company’s strategy said.
“Safety is our highest priority and primary motivator as we do this”, he said in a written statement.
Google has been testing self-driving cars on California roads for a while, and an array of automobile makers including Audi, Mercedes, Lexus, Tesla and BMW are working on building self-driving capabilities into vehicles.
There are no comprehensive federal rules addressing the technology, and as the largest auto market in the US, rules in California are a landmark in the development of self-driving technology. “We’re gravely disappointed that California is already writing a ceiling on the potential for fully self-driving cars to help all of us who live here”, he wrote. As per the rules motorists are responsible to adhere to traffic laws whether they are in the driver’s seat or not. Still, Google says none of their cars have been ticketed. Those collisions have been minor and the tech giants says each has been caused by other drivers, not its technology.
Meanwhile, a consumer group applauded the draft rules as appropriately cautious.
The government is right to not immediately trust new technology to just work and some sort of a frame of regulation is needed to ensure our safety and security.
The DMV “did exactly what they should do, which is put the public safety first-and then take steps that promote the technology in a safe way”, said John Simpson, privacy project director at Consumer Watchdog and frequent Google critic.
The rules, a year in the making and a year behind schedule, aren’t final, and are certain to be contested by developers who believe they’re too conservative.
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Google, which is under the newly formed parent company Alphabet, and others will have a chance to voice their concerns or support in public workshops on January 28 in Sacramento and on February 2 in Los Angeles. While autonomous cars are seen as the ultimate iteration of a passenger-only transportation future, the biggest leaps are now being made in the driver-assist arena.
