US government looks to invest $4bn into traffic laws for autonomous vehicles — why?

A 10-year proposal put forth by the US Department of Transportation recommends the government invest $4 billion into creating a new system of laws specific to autonomous vehicles. 

The purpose of the plan is to implement consistent laws across state lines, and eliminate human error. 

The proposal is backed by carmakers and technology companies alike, including Google, Tesla, Ford, General Motors, and Volvo. They come after several of the aforementioned companies expressed concern that the different rules of the road across the country’s various state lines were creating too much headache for the developers of the autonomous technology.

“The absence of one set of rules means car makers cannot conduct credible tests to develop cars that meet all the different guidelines of all 50 US states,” Volvo said in a statement back in October.

When California recently passed a law stating autonomous vehicles must still be driven by fully licensed drivers, Google commented that the restrictions were “perplexing.”

“This maintains the same old status quo and falls short on allowing this technology to reach its full potential, while excluding those who need to get around but cannot drive,” the company said.

Anthony Foxx, head of the Department of Transportation, acknowledged the burden being placed on the companies’ developers, and said that he and his team would spend the next six months developing rules all states should adopt.

Beyond things like there being different speed limits between states, there are a bunch of other, slightly more nuanced issues at play here. This includes things like who’s liable when a self-driving car gets into a crash? Is it the driver or the company? 

Also, what do we make of all the new features being added to cars? Most vehicles now come with a tablet-esque infotainment system in the front dashboard — should it be considered illegal for the driver to use it just as it is illegal for a driver to interact with his / her phone while driving? What if the car is in autonomous mode — is the driver permitted to scroll through his / her Facebook feed?

Just recently, Tesla announced the company is working on software that will allow the driver to summon his / her car remotely, out of its parking spot, to be picked up curbside. In fact, the company’s CEO Elon Musk has even gone so far as to publicly state that he envisions a day when one of his cars will be able to drive itself from one city to another to pick up a passenger. Should the vehicle’s software fail, and the car gets into an accident en route to its destination — while it’s unoccupied — who’s at fault?

They all make for interesting arguments, and no doubt Mr. Foxx and his team will have their hands full in the coming months as they try and make sense of it all.

Via BBC