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California to Allow Autonomous Car Testing with No One Behind the Wheel

March 01, 2018 20:35·
California DMV Approves Self-Driving Vehicle Testing Without Drivers/Engineers

California DMV Approves Self-Driving Vehicle Testing Without Drivers/Engineers

"This is a major step forward for autonomous technology in California", stated DMV Director Jean Shiomoto.

The rules, written by California's Department of Motor Vehicles and approved by the state's Office of Administrative Law, also create the framework under which consumers can eventually buy driverless cars.

Alphabet-owned Waymo and GM's Cruise will likely welcome this news, since the former is already testing totally driver-free versions of its Chrysler Pacifica test auto in Arizona, and Cruise recently showed off its fully driverless autonomous vehicle, a modified version of the Bolt EV with no steering wheel and no pedals for brake and acceleration. The regulation still requires humans to be in control of the vehicle with remote operator monitoring.

In addition to setting up a system so the vehicles can communicate with a remote human operator, companies must also have vehicles able to detect and defend against cyberattacks. New rules mean that a human will no longer need to be present in test vehicles. If self-driving companies could submit and complete their applications then, permits for the testing and operations of the first remote-supported autonomous cars could be issued by April 2.

This article has been adapted from its original source. "It will be just like playing a video game, except lives will be at stake", said Consumer Watchdog's privacy and technology project director John Simpson. The disengagement report give some insight to just how good the self-driving technology is at this point.

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Even though it seems as if California is easing off the gas, companies will still be required to report their "disengagements", or human takeovers. The company drove a total of 352,544 miles on California roads in 2017 and only had to disengage 63 times, which is about one disengagement for every 5,600 miles traveled.

The advancement of autonomous technology hinges on the widespread public acceptance of it.

If you live in California, you're going to have to get used to cars driving with nobody behind the wheel.

But advocates of autonomous driving say that computers are better drivers than people, who can be distracted.

Critical comments suggested that the state should have to publish technical data and video when a crash with a self-driving vehicle happens, but that would risk "disclosing trade secret and confidential business information and is thus not required".

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