Vehicles to autonomous driving: a coalition asks efficiency regulations in the US government

A group of major companies in the technology landscape and US automaker has asked the government a certain efficiency in the issuance of regulations for self-driving cars. The request was made in the second of two meetings held by the Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Adminstration (NHTSA): Unlike the first meeting, held in recent weeks in Washington DC, there was a great commonality of purpose that he wanted strongly sensitize institutions on how much self-driving cars are too important to waste time with the bureaucracy.

Robert Grant, responsible for relations with the government Lyft, a transport service like Uber, commented: "The worst possible scenario for the growth of vehicles driving range is a patchwork of inconsistent laws. The regulations are necessary, but regulatory softening and consistency are equally important if we want this technology to reach its full potential. " Most of the other participants in the meeting supported a similar point of view.

David Strickland, former director for the NHTSA who now coordinates a lobby in favor of autonomous vehicles for Google, Uber, Lyft, Ford and Volvo, observes: "In the six years since I started working on autonomous driving, I saw develop a research project to a concrete technology with a horizon of very close spreading. We are at years, not decades, since everything will become a reality for the American public. "

The fact of the matter is how to develop a regulatory framework that is not overly complicated but it is able to take into account the most significant security issues and ethical dilemmas. Currently the NHTSA is caught between the two fires of having to respond to the needs of the public and having to ensure that the impact of autonomous vehicles could materialize as soon as possible.

In particular a very delicate point concerns the possibility for a human driver to take control of the vehicle at any time. The state of California, for example, is clashing with Google on the issue and if self-driving car should have compulsorily a steering wheel and pedals and a licensed driver to operate in case it becomes necessary. Google has in mind that cars are accessible to disabled and elderly individuals, while lawmakers fear that a car that can not be controlled by a human being to represent too high a risk. Some car manufacturers seem to be, at least in words, agree with Google: Ford in particular that "any veto of a vehicle that can operate without a driver will represent an obstacle to the revolutionary opportunities offered by autonomous vehicles".

The divergence of views on this subject is well represented on one side by John Simpson, privacy project director for Consumer Watchdog which describes the idea of ​​letting the audience use a car without a steering wheel as "not only unwise but also dangerous." "I think that some of the promoters in autonomous driving robot car like Google have forgotten what [the wheel]. It remains an essential means of human intervention." On the other side stands Chris Urmson, head of Google's self-driving program: "In this debate it is necessary to find a place for those people who are currently excluded from the guide. They are the people who will benefit most." On this issue he has also intervened Susan Henderson, responsible for the disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, noting that "a car that can operate independently, without the intervention of anyone, can have an incredible impact on the lives of these people" .

Urmson also noted that more than 15 US states have proposed several laws that would create a regulatory maze for manufacturers of vehicles and for trade between the states themselves, asking all'NHTSA to define once and for all what role states should playing in the regulatory process.

The way you move now the NHTSA depends largely on how quickly he wants to act. Anthony Foxx, secretary of the Department of Transportation, said in January that the agency would issue a first draft of the proposed regulations within six months. The process is now open to any public intervention and the NHTSA explained that interested parties may participate in the debate before they are sketched state standards, which should be published in July.