Driverless cars tested under real road conditions, at last
A law signed last Thursday by the governor of California, Jerry Brown, finally legalizes the testing of self-driving vehicles without a driver on board, and no pedals or steering wheel under real traffic conditions. Although some countries, such as Finland and the UK (which began studying the issue in 2013 and currently have no legal restrictions on the circulation of self-driving vehicles), already have legislation allowing self-driving vehicles in real traffic, which has enabled the self-driving bus experiment in Helsinki, so far in California the fifteen companies authorized to test under real road conditions were obliged to do so with a human driver, and to have a steering wheel and pedals to allow him or her to take control of vehicle in the event of an emergency.
California law is based on the guidelines provided by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), as part of a review first announced in 2015 in which Google seems to have had some considerable say. It has widely been considered that traffic legislation has been well behind the development of self-driving vehicles since 2013, which makes this review a very important milestone. Google seems to have asserted not only its experience in the development of self-driving vehicles, but also its lobbying ability: it has hired up to four former NHTSA officials to explain to their former colleagues its vision for the future of self-driving vehicles, eventually achieving a review some consider timid, certainly opens interesting possibilities for the advancement of the technology involved. Finally, in California, cars can be tested in real traffic in certain specially defined areas, with a top speed of about 56 km/h, with a minimum insurance coverage of five million dollars per vehicle.
In the United States, California and New York appear the most open to the idea of self-driving vehicles, with an approval rating of 86% and 90% respectively, compared to a national average of 80%. Companies like Google already have an important repository of experiences that, so far, included a specially trained driver ready to take control at certain times if traffic circumstances required. Now, the company can start testing without the human driver, since, in the words of Dmitri Dolgov, director of the self-driving technology unit at Google, “they are not building a car, but a driver.”
The world’s nations now face a new challenge: to be left behind in the process of adapting laws and highway codes means delaying progress in developing a technology that will not only be a huge opportunity to drastically reduce the number of road accidents, but to completely rethink the way in which we move around, how we transport goods, or even what our cities will look like. Adapting the legislative framework to match the technological progress represented by self-driving vehicles is, at this time, a crucial mission that will define which countries will progress fastest in this area and that aspire to retain a part value it generates.
The dream of Chris Urmson, until recently the director of the Google driverless car initiative, that his son would never need a driving license, is nearer than ever.
(En español, aquí)
