California regulators deciding how to permit the future rollout of self-driving cars were told Thursday by consumer advocates that their cautious approach was right on, and by companies developing the technology that the state’s current course will delay deployment of vehicles that promise huge safety benefits.
The state’s Department of Motor Vehicles heard the comments at a workshop held as it wrestles with how to keep the public safe as the imperfect technology matures — but not regulate it so heavily that it stifles development of the vehicles.
The agency was seeking suggestions of possible changes to a draft of precedent-setting regulations it released last month. Those regulations will govern how Californians can get the cars after prototypes are tested.
Because California has been a hotbed for the development and regulation of the cars, what happens in the state has ripple effects nationally.
What the DMV had hoped would be a technical discussion about legal language instead drifted toward broad statements about the merits of the technology.
Most vocal were advocates for the blind — a group that has not been central to the debate. Several argued the technology could change their lives, and the agency should not get in the way.
“Please don’t leave my family out in the waiting room,” said Jessie Lorenz, who is blind and relies on public transit to get her 4-year-old daughter to preschool. Lorenz would prefer to use a self-driving car for that — or even for a “spontaneous road trip.”
She said she has taken a ride in a self-driving car that Google Inc. has been developing, “and it was awesome.”
DMV attorney Brian Soublet said the agency appreciates the potential benefits for disabled people, but its focus has to be on the safety of the entire motoring public.
Google wants California to clear the road for the technology — and has expressed disappointment in the DMV’s draft regulations, which say self-driving cars must have a steering wheel in case onboard computers or sensors fail. A licensed driver would need to sit in the driver’s seat, ready to seize control in an emergency.
“We need to be careful about the assumption that having a person behind the wheel” will make driving safer, Chris Urmson, the leader of Google’s self-driving car project, told the agency.
Google has concluded that human error is the biggest danger in driving, and the company wants to remove the steering wheel and pedals from self-driving cars, giving people minimal ability to intervene.
Urmson said that if the draft regulations are not changed, Google’s car would not be available in the state. While Google and nearly a dozen other companies have been testing on California roads — with trained safety drivers behind the wheel, just in case — Google seems sure to focus deployment of cars without steering wheels elsewhere. Texas, where Google began testing prototypes last summer, looms large.
John Simpson of the nonprofit Consumer Watchdog commended the DMV on Thursday “for putting safety first. I think you got it exactly right” in the draft, he said.
The DMV is still months away from finalizing any regulations.
The agency has been working on regulations for testing and now deployment for nearly three years — and regulations on deployment were supposed to be final a year ago.
Read more of the original article in the San Jose Mercury Times.
