US Transportation Department Calls For 'Summit' On Autonomous Cars (reuters.com)

Auto manufacturers, technology companies, road safety advocates and policy makers will attend a March 1 conference over potential government actions that could speed the rollout of autonomous cars, the U.S. Transportation Department said on Friday. Reuters reports: Next month's "summit" is to help "identify priority federal and non-federal activities that can accelerate the safe rollout" of autonomous vehicles, the department said. It will also be open to the public. The U.S. National Highway Traffic-Safety Administration (NHTSA) wants comments on what research to conduct before deciding whether to eliminate or rewrite regulations. It could take the agency years to finalize rule changes, and advocates are pushing Congress to act. The March 1 meeting at the department's headquarters in Washington will include "several stakeholder breakout sessions on various topics related to automation," NHTSA said.

Comments

Why does Slashdot keep pushing this?

[Hetero]

Beau, why?

Re:Why does Slashdot keep pushing this?

[Hetero]

All stories alternate between three topics with no break:

1. "Evil Russians"
2. Al non-stories
Some other SJW/marketing nonsense

Unfortunately, some like you learned neither reading comprehension or to be aware of silent agendas. I would like to know in this case what is with #2. Slashdot used to have good articles on, say, a change in how device tree overlays are handled, or an article on the current state of RESTful design. It is little to none of that anymore. The faux-editors don't know anything and have been given instructions from their bosses in Dubai. When it was kdawson, samzenpus, taco, et al., these guys at least were in circles where real tech was being discussed, even if they didn't know too much about it themselves. It's really sad when cloning Timothy Lord into a worker pool of 30 pocket protector bearing threads knocking heads with each other would be preferable to THIS.

Re:Why does Slashdot keep pushing this?

[burtosis]

Your bitch tears are delicious, Beau is doing an excellent job of making your uneducated Republican faggots cry yourselves to death. If only you died faster and cried less somehow.

Beau? Is that you?

Sell them as a way to get home from the bar

[elrous0]

No more DUI charges for me!

Seems to me

[oldgraybeard]

When the public is banned from driving in an area or on a specific road. I say all public funding for everything related to that road is ended. The road should be purchased by the corporations that want to use it and they should pay all ongoing/upgrade costs and property taxes due on said private property.

The tax payers should not be expected to just hand over public property at no charge or accept the cost of improving or operating a public property for the sole benefit of specific corporations.

For driver less cars to actually work, the roadways must be totally redesigned and embedded with some type of sensor network, etc. And driver less can not mix with self driven vehicles the way I see things going. Also, they will only work in the next 20-30 years in pristine conditions. Thus no snow, ice, heavy rains, etc.

Just my 2 cents ;)

Re:Seems to me

[oldgraybeard]

Should have added puts on flame suit ;) lol

Re:Seems to me

[umghhh]

not sure about roads - I think some additional equipment may be necessary if the cars are to be fully autonomous. Other than that I have a problem with your assertion that tax payers should not be expected to pay for something. The only thing required from tax payers is to pay taxes. Nothing less and nothing more. There is no opportunity to take part in decision making as to what this money is going to be spent on etc. As a citizen (which is different from tax payer in many ways) usually you have a right to vote for some people to represent you. This right is usually mistaken for a right to take part in a republic (like in old republics in ancient Greece). Other than that if you are lucky nobody will harass you if you pay and occasionally submit yourself to military. There are very few states in this world where the right to elect is augmented with actual right to say something about the direction the state is to take, I know only about Switzerland. The rest is max at level of the Netherlands - they have the referendum and the government is obliged to take valid referendum into account but hey - did they the last time Dutch voted against something? So we can safely assume that if you are not a citizen of Switzerland living there you have no right and possibility to influence how your tax money is spent.

Re:Seems to me

[oldgraybeard]

Interesting comment, I had to think about it a bit.
I think it comes down to this.
"Other than that I have a problem with your assertion that tax payers should not be expected to pay for something. The only thing required from tax payers is to pay taxes. Nothing less and nothing more."

Not sure about all the Switzerland talk. So as a US citizen I am required to pay taxes (the government takes their cut, under the penalty of law,. not because I think the amount is right) but I should just trust and not comment on how government uses tax dollars?

Seems odd to me since I think the government throws away/squanders 40%+ of the tax dollars we send to them.

Just my 2 cents ;)

Re:Seems to me

[vtcodger]

How are trains at parallel parking?

Re:Seems to me

[mapkinase]

UNless the corporation is a utility company, heavily regulated.

Re:Seems to me

[BlueStrat]

There is literally nothing preventing you from going; making your voice heard; and seeing how and why your tax dollars are being spent.

If there IS something preventing you from doing that; you should REALLY go do something about that;

Rather than sitting at home typing incorrect responses to people you've never met; about problems you likely don't have; why not go *DO* something that makes a difference?

What, do you actually think nobody is trying?

Try Googling "stonewalls FOIA requests". Some don't respond, some just flat out tell you you've received everything you're going to get from them, which is typically "no responsive documents" when it's obvious from other sources and evidence that relevant documents most certainly do exist. The courts and lawyers slow-walk it such that you'd grow old waiting for a resolution with endless stays, reschedules, motions, appeals, etc etc etc.

Hell, the US Congress often cannot get government agencies, departments, etc and their officials to provide data/documents when legally required by law to do so! Hard drives are being wiped/smashed/Bleach-Bitted after becoming material evidence, files are being deleted, possibly even murder committed, and surprise-surprise, nobody is going to jail.

Strat

Re:Seems to me

[fluffernutter]

There would be a huge uprising before that happens. Most average Americans don't care right now, but if they try to enforce a law 'you must use a service or a $150K vehicle or you can't drive'... Oh yeah Americans will be uprising like you have never seen it before.

Turn Signals!

[fullback]

I canâ(TM)t wait for AI so we can have cars using turn signals again like they were decades ago.

Iâ(TM)ve been out of the country for a while, so I didnâ(TM)t realize that American car companies stopped installing turn signals.

Will AI cars rush as fast as possible from red light to red light, just so the passengers can get home really, really fast, so they can sit on the couch and eat potato chips?

Re:Turn Signals!

[vtcodger]

This is the 21st Century. We come home and eat nachos.

Re:Turn Signals!

[PPH]

Will AI cars rush as fast as possible from red light to red light

No. They will stop and wait patiently for the homeless people pushing shopping carts down the middle of the street. No automated horn or recording of "Move it, dirtbag!"

Doomed to fail

[SonicSpike]

Now that the government is involved, this will make things all better. /sarc

I've Seen This Movie

[mentil]

During the summit, an autonomous car bursts into the room and kills everyone. Thus, starts the war between the Autobots and humanity.
What's that you say, the Autobots were the good guys? Michael Bay must've been paid off to repeat that propaganda.

Re:Thanks but no-thanks.

[hardburlyboogerman]

As far as that goes,A few items that seems to be overlooked in the plans for an autonomous car rollout -
1. Who is Liable when there is no human driver,just an AI, in an accident? The Manufacturer? The rider? Who?
2.The robot drivers might be OK for the urban areas,but worse than useless in rural areas where even decent landline phones, reliable electric lines and paved roads are not always available,let alone a wireless grid to help guide the vehicles.
I live in Southeastern Kentucky,which clearly has Third World conditions with infrastructure - with no one in any industry or Government giving a damn nor any plans to improve it anytime soon.
3.Cost - the more features any given vehicle has,the greater the cost and vehicles which barely last long enough to get them paid off before they fall apart.
  I,for one,am not willing to pay $60000 or more for a car or truck that won't last 5 years.
Hell I drive a 19 year old Ford Ranger pickup and don't plan on replacing it anytime in the future.Buses and Public transportation doesn't exist here.What then? back to riding a horse or walking to town? (With me having a prosthetic right leg,that isn't a viable option either)
These MUST BE Answered before you can fully turn loose AI driven cars everywhere.