Google to make driverless cars a stand-alone business next year

Google is trying hard to promote automobiles lacking steering wheel and pedals, and was highly disappointed with the new rules.

Upcoming public workshops are meant to gather input from industry, consumer and public interest groups, academics, as well as the public, to help improve the quality of the regulations that the DMV says “will eventually be adopted for the operation of self-driving vehicles.”. Google’s self-driving cars have been plying the streets of Palo Alto for years and have run up more than a million miles, according to Google.

Under the proposal, a three-year deployment permit will be granted to the manufacturers of self-driving cars, to enable them to lease their cars to customers, but not sell them. The human driver also needs to acquire a state-issued “autonomous vehicle operator certificate”, so that he can take over the wheels when it becomes necessary.

At a public presentation in September, Sarah Hunter, a public policy director at Google X, was asked when self-driving cars would go mainstream, to which she replied “Whenever the DMV pass their operational regulations”.

Answering a common query, regulators said any traffic violations or accidents would remain the responsibility of the human driver.

This slightly dampens hopes that self-driving technology would enable those who are now unable to drive – such as people with disabilities – to get on the roads.

This requires manufacturers to include a steering wheel and break pedals – Google’s experimental cars now have them for legal reasons, but the company wants to just have two buttons to start and stop the auto. An independent testing organization would have to verify those claims through a “vehicle demonstration test” of the car’s “ability to perform key driving maneuvers that are typically encountered in real-world driving conditions”. The DMV is looking to ensure that self-driving cars were safe when they finally reached the general public. Public hearings and a formal proposal are the next steps, but there probably won’t be a final law for at least a year, he said.

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.