Their voices were echoed by President Obama, who wrote an op-ed in Monday’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that also sang the praises of driverless cars and their potential for increased safety and accessibility. Obama said his administration is implementing new road safety rules for automated vehicles and that it is asking developers to sign a 15-point safety checklist for driverless auto systems. Mapping routes is a critical component to getting self-driving cars on the road, as the cars compare a map of what they should see to what they actually sense with sensors in order to detect obstacles.
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The one firm requirement: Make sure those cars are safe. In April, the five companies came together to create the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets, an advocacy and lobbying group headed up by former administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration David Strickland. “If you look at the policy, it provides that path”.
Despite that, the PUC has a “statutory obligation” to ensure autonomous vehicles operate in a safe and reliable manner, the agency said, and new rules will “undoubtedly be needed” as the new technology rises in popularity and usage. Nationwide consideration of this guidance will help avoid a patchwork of differing state regulations and enable all automakers to continue rapid advancement of ongoing research in this area.
How do driverless cars work? Uber recently began using a test fleet of autonomous cars for its ride-hailing service in Pittsburgh. “If a state does pursue … performance-related regulations, that state should consult with (the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) and base its efforts on the Vehicle Performance Guidance provided in this policy”.
The next argument is likely to be over whether such systems can be legally considered to be a driver or if they still need to have a human being ready to take over in the event of failure.
Tesla plans as soon as this week to download new software to its cars. “We will not hesitate to use our recall authority when we have identified a defect that presents an unreasonable risk to safety”, says Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx.
And yet, several parts of the 116-page policy, address safety issues highlighted by the Tesla crash. Despite that, it’s important for companies like Uber to allow time for these regulations to be crafted, the PUC said. They said they welcome recommendations from the industry.
The future is here in the form of self-driving cars, and western Pennsylvania is at the forefront as a testing ground of the new technology. Autopilot allows drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel for short periods. The company has said the new version will be even stricter in that regard.
Mr Waldron said the National Transport Commission was already looking at legislation that would be needed for a national trial and deployment of automated cars, and United States guidelines offered many ideas that could be applied in Australia. A new administration could modify, rework or scrap the guidelines. His agency released preliminary data on July 1 showing an estimated 35,200 people died in motor vehicle traffic accidents past year, up 7.7 percent from 2014.
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Driverless and semi-autonomous cars have hit the open roads, forcing regulators to keep up. Despite that, Uber has not applied for or received the necessary approval it needs from the PUC to start charging people for rides in autonomous vehicles.
