California: Self-driving cars must have driver behind wheel

In addition to the mandatory installation of a steering wheel in driverless cars, the legislators will only allow licensed drivers to operate the vehicles.

At the same time, automakers are bringing more pieces of self-driving technology to market while insisting that the driver is responsible for the vehicle’s operation and may need to take control of the steering wheel in challenging situations.

The draft regulations also require autonomous cars to undergo testing and certification by a third party in order to get a three-year operating permit for cars that can be leased to the public, but not bought.

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.

With the efforts of two major companies exerting its will on one project, a future filled with more autonomous cars will not only on be limited to campus-based roads, but we will also see them on expressways and city streets.

Company spokesman Johnny Luu says Google, which has led development of the technology, is “gravely disappointed” by the rules, which will limit Google’s ability to deploy the cars as quickly as it would like.

Google, which foresees its self-driving vehicles available to consumers within five or six years, says that if the proposal becomes a law in California, it would test their prototypes in other states. That driver would also be on the hook for traffic violations.

By challenging ride-sharing pioneers like Uber and Lyft Inc, as well as traditional taxis, Google is providing the clearest indication yet how it plans to make money from self-driving automotive technologies that it began testing in 2009. But questions remain about whether it’s really an effective safety measure to put licensed driver’s behind the wheel of autonomous cars.

“The primary focus of the deployment regulations is the safety of autonomous vehicles and the safety of the public who will share the road with these vehicles”, DMV director Jean Shiomoto wrote in Wednesday’s statement. The cars have been involved in more than a dozen fender-benders, though the tech firm argues that they are being hit by drivers who are distracted and not paying attention to the roads. The provisional permits are described as a “first step towards the full deployment of autonomous vehicles in California”, and the data collected will be used to inform subsequent regulations by the DMV.

The cars use a suite of sensors – including radar, lasers and cameras – and onboard computers to drive.

Google believes cars without anyone inside would be legal now on Texas roads.

In the article, Hotz criticizes Tesla Motors and Mobileye, an Israeli company that supports autonmous driving modes on cars from Tesla and other auto makers.