Google joins Uber, Ford, Volvo and Lyft in forming a Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets to promote self driving car regulations on a federal level versus state by state level. Google has been battling the California DMV who have proposed to ban Google’s Koala car that does not have a steering wheel or pedals and would not require a licensed driver.
The California legislature is worried that the CA DMV is running off potential business from the state with its draft rules on self-driving cars. A bill was proposed to force the CA DMV to allow driverless operations and testing of cars like the ones Google has created with no steering wheel or pedals. The bill recently was approved in the transportation committee 14-0 to move to the appropriations committee. Now, assembly member Mike Gatto of Los Angeles — sponsor of the legislation — has provided comments on the legislation:
The promise of autonomous cars is not that it can handle your highway commute but complete the full journey from point A to B. When that day comes, it will not only dramatically change road safety, but also open up new business models beyond the current vehicle ownership model to mobility on demand service model.
Elon Musk recently reduced his timetable for full autonomy from 3 years down to 2 years.
“We’re going to end up with complete autonomy, and I think we will have complete autonomy in approximately two years.”
The Model 3 is expected to be the first Tesla vehicle to be equipped with the automaker’s self-driving system.
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Truly autonomous vehicles are poised to be an exciting technology, but as with any other technology, there are always regulatory hurdles to be cleared. As first spotted by public records sleuth Mark Harris, a bill working its way through the California legislature would require the state’s DMV to effectively legalize Google’s ambitions of having a driverless fleet of self-driving Koala cars…
Reuters is reporting today that the governing coalition in Germany is scheduled to “soon” pass self-driving car regulations. The laws if passed would allow testing of self-driving cars on public roads. Today’s report also corroborates previous reports that Germany is looking to provide incentives for buyers of electric vehicles…