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

Posted by BeauHD on from the sign-of-the-times dept.

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.

3 of 38 comments (clear)

  1. Seems to me by oldgraybeard · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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 ;)

    1. Re:Seems to me by oldgraybeard · · Score: 2

      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 ;)

  2. Re:Why does Slashdot keep pushing this? by Hetero · · Score: 2

    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.