Prototype of Google's Self-Driving Car Project [Courtesy of Google]
California unveiled preliminary regulations for autonomous-driving cars Wednesday, and Google, who had been leading in the development of self-driving cars, is not happy with the announcement.
The outlines of regulations revealed -
California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) outlined four key points of the regulations. Firstly, the manufacturers of the self-driving cars must certify that their cars meet the safety and performance standards and must undergo a performance verification carried out by a third-party.
If verifications are approved, the manufacturer will be awarded with three-year provisional permits. The manufacturers will be required to do performance, safety and usage of their vehicles regularly as a part of licensing. Data acquired during the process will be used by the DMV on further updates and fixes on the regulation.
The autonomous-driving car must be able to defend itself against hacking or other unauthorized attacks. The operator must be alerted of such violation and override the system if needed.
And this is the part which Google and probably other manufacturers in the development of self-driving cars got disappointed – An autonomous driving car must have an operator in the vehicle to take full control in case of a problem. Cars designed with fully autonomous to driverless, are to be initially excluded from licenses until the vehicles’ safety and its performance further analyzed to have the regulation revised.
Why Google is angry –
Google had been developing self-driving cars which are fully automatic, driverless. A few of other car makers also were developing self-driving cars with no steering wheel aimed for the vehicle to drive by itself.
As soon as the announcement by DMV was made, Google spokeswoman Courtney Hohne made a statement via email, the New York Times reported.
"Safety is our highest priority and primary motivator as we do this. We're gravely disappointed that California is already writing a ceiling on the potential for fully self-driving cars to help all of us who live here." Hohne said.
There are still chances on which the regulation may be altered to meet the conditions of the driverless autonomous car. Then fully autonomous car may be allowed to be tested and finally, commercialized on California’s soil.
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reporter
Park Sae-jin
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