Google perplexed by new driverless car rules

Chris Urmson, Google’s Director of Self-Driving Cars, stated: “This maintains the same old status quo and falls short on allowing this technology to reach its full potential, while excluding those who need to get around but cannot drive.

“We’ve heard countless stories from people who need a fully self-driving car today. People with health conditions ranging from vision problems to multiple sclerosis to autism to epilepsy who are frustrated with their dependence on others for even simple errands.” Due to the fact that human error that causes the majority of collisions on the road are eliminated with driverless cars, Google has argued that driverless cars are far safer than manually driven cars – siting that in six years of testing its vehicles have been involved in only 16 minor incidents.

“We’ve seen in our own testing that drivers can't be trusted to dip in and out of the task of driving when the car is encouraging them to sit back and relax,” said Urmson. Indeed, some of the driverless cars Google has been testing in California do not have any manual controls such as steering wheels or pedals. The DMV’s draft regulations would prevent residents from riding in those vehicles until their safety could be assessed in ‘subsequent regulatory packages’.

The fact that Google’s driverless cars are safe is certainly evident, in fact in November one of its self-drive cars was pulled over in California for driving too slowly – being described by the California Department of Motor Vehicles as being ‘over-cautious’. The car was travelling at 24mph in a 35mph zone.

Google commented: “We’ve capped the speed of our prototype vehicles at 25mph for safety reasons. We want them to feel friendly and approachable, rather than zooming scarily through neighbourhood streets. However, it added that, in 1.2 million miles of autonomous driving tests, “we're proud to say we’ve never been ticketed.”

Google’s fleet of autonomous cars are programmed to follow the rules of the road to the letter but this can cause problems when the vehicles are sharing the road with human drivers who do not. Researchers in the field have acknowledged that getting autonomous cars to work well in the world of human drivers is one of their biggest challenges.

In his blog Urmson commented: “People are telling us daily that self-driving cars are worth a shot. The status quo on our roads is simply not problem-free - it has a real cost, not only in productivity and stress, but in lives damaged and destroyed by the mistakes of human drivers. Around the world, 1.2 million people die on the roads each year. In the U.S., 94% of crashes are caused by human error. We have to imagine a better future, and take urgent steps to get there. Not a future of partial self-driving capabilities - we’ve seen in our own testing that drivers can’t be trusted to dip in and out of the task of driving when the car is encouraging them to sit back and relax - but of fully autonomous vehicles which are open to all.”

Commenting on the DMV’s ruling, he added: “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.”

The technology of self-driving cars has also inspired a web game by Made With Monster Love which demonstrates the effectiveness of computer control over human intervention. Driverless car game: http://madewithmonsterlove.itch.io/error-prone