California DMV stops short of fully embracing driverless cars

The Department of Motor Vehicles in the state of California has proposed restrictive regulations on autonomous vehicles, entirely banning driverless cars with no human passengers on board.

Thilo Koslowski, Vice President and Automotive Practice Leader at Gartner Inc., commented on how despite 1 in 3 American consumers being interested in buying autonomous cars in the future, most are afraid of the concept not functioning properly and thereby losing control of the vehicle.

THE LEASE YOU CAN DO: Once a model has passed the safety checks, consumers could lease — but not buy — it. For the first three years of its deployment, manufacturers would need to collect safety and performance information and report that data monthly to the agency. The self-driving auto project that Google has been developing, is likely to become a separate firm under Alphabet next year. In addition to Google, 10 other manufacturers, including Tesla, Nissan, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, have research centers in the valley and permits to test autonomous vehicles in California.

Google is not happy with the preliminary rules California issued Wednesday to regulate the production and sales of self-driving vehicles.

California has always been at the forefront of technology, and the situation is no different when it comes to self-driving cars.

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

But the DMV said that “manufacturers need to obtain more experience in testing driverless vehicles on public roads prior to making this technology available to the general public”.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles on Wednesday released a set of terms and summary for its proposed regulations, which it was ordered to prepare by the state Legislature in 2012’s S.B.

“We’re gravely disappointed that California is already writing a ceiling on the potential for fully self-driving cars to help all of us who live here”, said Google spokesman Johnny Luu in a statement. Boosters say the technology could prevent numerous more than 32,000 deaths on US roads each year. The motorists will be responsible for obeying traffic laws, regardless of whether they are at the wheels. Those collisions have been minor and the tech giants says each has been caused by other drivers, not its technology.

John Simpson, privacy project director at Consumer Watchdog, approves of the DMV’s cautious approach.

George Hotz is a 26-year-old hacker who says he built a self-driving vehicle in a month.

The DMV will hold hearings on the proposed rules in January and February, and will consider making changes before they’re made final, Gonzalez said.

Meanwhile, Uber – whose car-riding app has seen rapid global adoption while also raising the ire of many traditional taxi drivers – is also hard at work to enable autonomous cars, which it sees as the next disruptive innovation in transportation.