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House Passes Bill To Speed Deployment of Self-driving Cars (go.com)
The House voted Wednesday to speed the introduction of self-driving cars by giving the federal government authority to exempt automakers from safety standards not applicable to the technology, and to permit deployment of up to 100,000 of the vehicles annually over the next several years. From a report: The bill was passed by a voice vote. State and local officials have said it usurps their authority by giving to the federal government sole authority to regulate the vehicles' design and performance. States would still decide whether to permit self-driving cars on their roads. Automakers have complained that a patchwork of laws states have passed in recent years would hamper deployment of the vehicles, which they see as the future of the industry. Self-driving cars are forecast to dramatically lower traffic fatalities once they are on roads in significant numbers, among other benefits. Early estimates indicate there were more than 40,000 traffic fatalities last year. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says 94 percent of crashes involve human error.
All these lawmakers who voted for this bill without understanding the technology involved or the current state of the industry should be required to complete one entire circuit of the Washington Beltway riding alone in the backseat of a SDC.
I'd do it. It's safer than riding with my wife driving. Hell, it's safer than the majority of drivers. 34% have admitted to texting and driving and over half talking on a cell phone and driving. Then there are all the ones that should never have gotten a drivers license to start with. I was in Germany in the 80s and I was amazed at how many Americans failed the test to get a license to drive in Germany. I worked with ppl that took it 3 or 4 times before passing. My wife took it 3 times and gave up, she never drove at all in Europe.
You can't have laws that are so vague that you can unintentionally violate them.
No, but you can certainly have punishments so weak that manufacturers will find it worth it to intentionally violate them. You know, like bypassing security in order to be first to market. Not that we've ever seen that shit happen before...(cough, IoT, cough)
The line cannot be that no accidents can occur -- because self driving cars are already safer than cars driven by puny humans.
Let's see how the masses feel when they find out a loved one was one of 100,000 people killed after a DDoS-style mass attack against autonomous vehicles takes place in a major city. Watch as the manufacturer demands closed-door legal proceedings and produces redacted shit detailing their fault, negotiating death caused by an insecure product down to a free cup of fucking coffee for the next of kin.
If companies are already looking to push this technology by requesting a pass on current regulation, then it will probably go to market like damn near every other mass-produced thing we make, meaning shit for security. And I've already explained why they will do this; because it will be worth it.
Imagine this: You're duct-taped to a wheelchair, and a gag is put in your mouth. Now a total stranger is going to push you and your wheelchair around. That's what a so-called 'self driving car' is going to be like: no way to really control it, no way to stop it, just buttons to push that it may or may not respond to, and in the end it may or may not go where you wanted to go -- and the police, government, or random hackers may take control if it at any time, and then you will have NO say what happens to you. Sure hope you enjoy absolute terror, because that's going to be your life now.
The line cannot be that no accidents can occur -- because self driving cars are already safer than cars driven by puny humans.
This is the point that I hope gets understood sooner rather than later. Accidents happen currently to the tune of ~3000 people dying a month and many times that injured. If self driving cars reduce this then progress has been made. The data I've seen is that self driving / driver assist reduces car accidents by ~20% and injuries by ~25%. That's huge. As long as some jackass lawyer doesn't get to have punitive damages that are in excess of what a regular driver would get then it should be fine. Meaning that if Ford doesn't get fined more than some random human driver then it will be OK since insurance can cover those cases.
Citations:
https://www.digitaltrends.com/...