President Barack Obama makes his case for self-driving cars

Right now, too many people die on our roads – 35,200 a year ago alone – with 94 percent of those the result of human error or choice. Further, he added that automated vehicles have the potential to save tens of thousands of lives each year.

Self-driving cars are no longer a thing of the future and over the past few years we have already seen Google and Tesla put vehicles on the road that can pretty much operate without a human being in the driver’s seat. Self-driving vehicles could also help senior citizens and people with disabilities who can’t drive on their own. “What’s more, the quickest way to slam the brakes on innovation is for the public to lose confidence in the safety of new technologies”.

It’s an exciting time for driverless vehicles, as more companies are joining the party to develop autonomous vehicle technology – from Ford’s announcement of its self-driving auto that will have no steering wheel, gas pedal or brakes, to Volvo starting trials for its autonomous SUV. It’s basically a list of criteria that qualifies a self-driving vehicle or technology as road safe. “And we’re asking them to sign a 15-point safety checklist showing not just the government, but every interested American, how they’re doing it”. “State and local governments also have complementary responsibilities and should work with the federal government to achieve and maintain our status as world leaders in innovation”, said David Strickland, general counsel for the trade group, Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets. Most importantly, the new regulations are created to be flexible and evolve over time as the technology continues to chance and improve.

Large automakers in particular have made big strides in the technological development of driverless cars but have been wary of introducing those features too quickly without the backing of federal regulators. “Government sometimes gets it wrong when it comes to rapidly changing technologies”, he said.

Obama mentioned a first-ever White House Frontiers Conference to focus on autonomous vehicles, which will be held on October 13. “That’s what harnessing technology for good can look like”, Obama wrote in the piece, which was published Monday night.

Pittsburgh is notable for its openness to self-driving vehicle testing, including support for Uber’s testing of self-driving rideshare cars.