California self-driving car rules ‘perplexing’

California’s Department of Motor vehicles (DMV) has issued its draft self-driving vehicle deployment regulations, which, according to Google’s self-driving car chief, Chris Urmson, are perplexing. The DMV has proposed a draft rule that would require a self-driving car to have a licensed driver at all times. Urmson says that while this maintains the same old status quo, it falls short on allowing this technology to reach its full potential, while excluding those who need to get around but cannot drive.
December 21, 2015 Read time: 2 mins

California’s Department of Motor vehicles (DMV) has issued its draft self-driving vehicle deployment regulations, which, according to Google’s self-driving car chief, Chris Urmson, are perplexing.

The DMV has proposed a draft rule that would require a self-driving car to have a licensed driver at all times. Urmson says that while this maintains the same old status quo, it falls short on allowing this technology to reach its full potential, while excluding those who need to get around but cannot drive.

He says, “While we’re disappointed by this, we will continue to work with the DMV as they seek feedback in the coming months, in the hope that we can recapture the original spirit of the bill.

“California is a state with both world-class car culture and world-class innovation, and we can do better. Instead of putting a ceiling on the potential of self-driving cars, let’s have the courage to imagine what California would be like if we could live without the shackles of stressful commutes, wasted hours, and restricted mobility for those who want the independence that the automobile has always represented.”

The DMV has scheduled two public workshops, the first on 28 January in Sacramento and the second in Los Angeles on 2 February to allow interested parties to provide input on the draft regulations.

Location Based Systems

Related Content

  • Is Europe's Galileo project value for money?
    February 2, 2012
    Philippe Hamet discusses the progress of the European Union's Galileo Global Navigation Satellite System Project
    Read More
  • ‘Risky tailgating and speeding rife on UK motorways’
    May 22, 2014
    Six in ten UK drivers own up to risky tailgating (57 per cent) and a similar proportion break the limit by 10mph or more (60 per cent) on motorways and 70mph dual carriageways, with men by far the worst offenders, a survey by Brake and insurance company Direct Line reveals. Almost all drivers say they worry about other drivers tailgating on motorways: 95 per cent are at least occasionally concerned about vehicles too close behind them; more than four in ten (44 per cent) are concerned every, or most, tim
    Read More
  • User based insurance is helping good drivers and identifying the bad ones
    November 28, 2013
    Thomas Hallauer gives an overview of Usage Based Insurance (UBI), an industry that is putting telematic devices into more vehicles than fleet management ever did. The insurance market is going through a transformation phase never seen before. Insurers have not only started to track individual cars for Usage Based Insurance (UBI), they are also using the technology to enhance consumer services as more drivers join up to these schemes. Progressive Insurance in the US has 1.4 million customers signed up to
    Read More
  • What actually happens if we do #FreetheMIBs?
    May 1, 2020
    Q-Free’s #FREEtheMIBs campaign highlights the use of manufacturer-specific data output, storage and communication protocols in traffic lights and ITS systems.
    Read More

Highlighted Content