California Proposal To Require Human Drivers On Autonomous Cars Disappoints Google
For starters, the DMV’s preliminary rules prohibit autonomous vehicles that don’t have a steering wheel or a brake pedal – Google’s cars have neither steering wheels nor pedals.
Among other safety-related requirements, the cars must have a steering wheel, and a licensed driver must be ready to take over if the machine fails. Also included is the stipulation that the self-driving vehicles cannot be sold directly; they must be leased by prospective consumers instead, something that could be a small hindrance for some users. California also banned the sale of self-driving cars, limiting manufacturers to leasing the vehicles.
Citing safety as its primary concern, DMV stated that manufacturers require more test data and experience before they can introduce such vehicles to general consumers.
Google criticized the proposal in a statement to Automotive News, saying the company was “gravely disappointed” that California was “writing a ceiling on the potential for fully self-driving cars”.
“The worrying thing would be a rush to regulation preemptively”, Chris Urmson, director of Google’s self-driving vehicle program, said at an event in November.
Norman, who is also a former executive of Apple and HP, said in an email, “People are incapable of monitoring something for long periods and then taking control when an emergency arises”.
California’s DMV has made a draft of regulations including a controversial ground rule for self-driving vehicles. In September, the safety chief of its self-driving auto project, Ron Medford, said the technology was “close to working pretty damn well”. As the unnamed source specifies, the cities mentioned aren’t officially the first to get Google’s autonomous cars, but are the most likely to receive the technology for first adopters. Deciding how much to hold computers responsible for accidents and other missteps has been at the center of burgeoning debates over how to regulate driverless cars.
In case Google’s Alphabet company decides to take on Uber, the future self-driving taxi business could dethrone the powerful German-named app. We believe this could occur because of Uber’s business model and the current wave of potential class-action lawsuits waiting to happen.
The new business will initially launch a fleet of vehicles offering rides for hire in locations such as college campuses, airports and corporate business parks, Bloomberg reported, with San Francisco and Austin set to be the first locations.
Even so, the proposed regulations are still just a draft.
California is scheduling two public workshops to discuss the draft regulations, one on January 28, 2016 in Sacramento, and the other in Los Angeles on February 2, 2016.