Google Upset With New Regulations Regarding Autonomous Cars

The company’s current prototypes, which are plying in California and Texas, were originally designed without steering wheels and brake pedals, but the company simply had to include them in the final design to comply with existing guidelines. As for the new precautions, the state can now ban autonomous cars from being driven on public roads, unless they are occupied by a human driver who holds a valid driver’s license.

Self-driving cars will also be required to detect, self-diagnose and respond to cyber attacks and other unauthorised intrusions, allowing the human driver to take control, the ruling stated.

Manufacturers must submit autonomous vehicles to third-party testing to verify the car’s “ability to perform key driving maneuvers that are typically encountered in real-world driving conditions”. “The draft regulations exclude autonomous vehicles that are capable of operating without the presence of a driver”, according to the new law (read the full document here). Google plans to spin out its self-driving vehicle division into its own company next year, and introduce services in Austin and San Francisco.

Google is “gravely disappointed” with the proposed rules for self-driving cars from California regulators.

Johnny Luu, a spokesman at Google, said that while developing vehicles that can take anyone from one place to another at the push of a button, the company was hoping to transform mobility for millions of people.

In response to a DMV statement that “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”, Luu said that “safety is our highest priority and primary motivator as we do this”.

Google’s frustration with the agency has been growing for some time.

In addition to public workshops meant to gather input from industry, consumer and public interest groups, academics, and the general population, DMV officials have asked California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology (PATH), a research program of UC Berkeley, to conduct a peer review of the behavioral competencies necessary to safely operate autonomous vehicles. It sounds reasonable on the surface, but from Google’s vantage point, the DMV is essentially placing a ceiling on autonomous driving technology. Now, the agency’s rules are coming to fruition, but the tech giant may not stick around to keep testing in California.