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California Scraps Safety Driver Rules for Self-Driving Cars (nytimes.com)
California regulators have given the green light to truly driverless cars. From a report: The state's Department of Motor Vehicles said Monday that it was eliminating a requirement for autonomous vehicles to have a person in the driver's seat to take over in the event of an emergency. The new rule goes into effect on April 2. California has given 50 companies a license to test self-driving vehicles in the state. The new rules also require companies to be able to operate the vehicle remotely -- a bit like a flying military drone -- and communicate with law enforcement and other drivers when something goes wrong. The changes signal a step toward the wider deployment of autonomous vehicles. One of the main economic benefits praised by proponents of driverless vehicles is that they will not be limited by human boundaries and can do things like operate 24 hours in a row without a drop-off in alertness or attentiveness. Taking the human out of the front seat is an important psychological and logistical step before truly driverless cars can hit the road. "This is a major step forward for autonomous technology in California," said Jean Shiomoto, director of California's D.M.V. "Safety is our top concern and we are ready to begin working with manufacturers that are prepared to test fully driverless vehicles in California."
Should the owner of a self-driving car be required to have a driver's license? And if the owner is not required to have a driver's license, and he's not driving the vehicle, should he be required to have insurance? Shouldn't the manufacturer be the one insured against any liability if there is an accident?
You are welcome on my lawn.
and can you get a DUI in driverless car?
If we set aside the security considerations, I wonder if this offers a reasonable compromise. Until a car can be made fully autonomous, they could run on auto pilot until the computer encounters a problematic situation. For example, it approaches a construction zone on the highway. The car connects to a human driver in an op center that takes control, navigates the obstacle, then returns control to the computer. I wonder if this is what companies like Uber and Lyft are working toward?
No, cross-country latency can be as low as 40ms and in these situations it would be perfectly acceptable to slow down and proceed cautiously. The car can stop and wait for instructions if it's so congested or pretty desolate.
My concern would be dealing with roads where the network doesn't reach. If you use 4g, you are going to find long stretches of PCH pretty undrivable.