Obama Proposes $4 Billion Investment In Self-Driving Cars (transportation.gov)

An anonymous reader writes: The Obama Administration has unveiled a proposal for a 10-year, $4 billion investment in the adoption of autonomous car technology. The money would fund pilot projects to, among other things, "test connected vehicle systems in designated corridors throughout the country, and work with industry leaders to ensure a common multistate framework for connected and autonomous vehicles." The administration says it has an interest in cutting the death toll — over 30,000 people each year in the U.S. — associated with traffic accidents. The proposal also calls for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to work with industry to resolve regulatory issues before they inhibit development of self-driving cars. "This is the right way to drive innovation," said Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx.

Comments

Why

[JackieBrown]

Why is he getting involved in this at all? We already have several companies working toward this goal. The only answer that makes sense is that he wants to fund those companies closest to him or his party.

Re:Why

[Chacharoo]

As someone who has had a family member who died in a car accident, (my mother, Buffalo, icy February roads, in a hurry, her Escort crushed under an SUV, thanks for asking) I will stand up and say in a clear voice that it is reasonable for the government to invest money in safer roads, cars, and automation. Government is one way we organize those tasks we agree everyone in the country has an interest in. I think it's great that private companies are working in this also, but I think there's often an incentive for competitive entities to create several disparate systems that have complicated, sometimes incompatible interactions (just like computers.)

Re: Why

[ljw1004]

The companies working on self-driving cars have complained that each state has different regulations about them. They asked the federal government to step in and make uniform regulations across the US. That's what Obama is doing.

Funding the development of standards

[Crowd Computing]

From the .gov link:

The President’s FY17 budget proposal would provide nearly $4 billion over 10 years for pilot programs to test connected vehicle systems in designated corridors throughout the country, and work with industry leaders to ensure a common multistate framework for connected and autonomous vehicles.

So the administration is spending somewhat less than half a billion a year to test the road-worthiness of such autonomous vehicles and then ensure that the different models can operate with each other. It's not about crony capitalism but ensuring that the autonomous vehicle market doesn't degenerate into a Wild West of clashing, or worse crashing, standards. Of course, the ideal would for a world body to set the standards for autonomous vehicles, but waiting for that could mean some other country could get a head start in developing the technologies that would later be incorporated in those standards.

Re:WTF???

[Whorhay]

It could amount to a very shrewd investment. We have about 30K traffic fatalities a year, which over the span of this proposal would amount to 300k deaths. If autonomous cars cut that number in half it'd cost us about $27k per life, again over the course of the ten years. The extra taxes you get to collect from those people over the course of the rest of their lives could quite possibly pay back that investment. And it's not like once the decade of funding is over autonomous cars would stop saving lives.

I'm curious what other areas you feel we as a society would be better served by investing $4 Billion in? Personally I'd suspect some medical research avenues might have better potential, but are likely already well funded. Even if there are better ways to spend the money, it isn't like we can only fund one such area at a time.