The self-driving car has had a lot of news coverage within the last year, including the incident of one of these cars getting pulled over for driving too slowly. However, as with any technological advance, there are always legal components that are holding its development back. One of these was the US National Traffic Safety Administration (or NHTSA for short).
Originally, the term “driver” has always referred to the person that is holding the steering wheel and pressing the pedals. In our minds, that makes perfect sense because all of our cars currently require to have someone behind the wheel “driving” the car, right? Well, with Google’s autonomous car, that all changed – the computer system is “driving” the car, not any human. This legality had to be addressed in order for Google’s autonomous car to move forward.
Well, Google managed to do just that! The NHTSA on February 4th of this year modified the term “driver” to be for the case of the autonomous car the self-driving system as the “driver”.
The NHTSA stated: “In this instance, an item of motor vehicle equipment, the Self-Driving System, is actually driving the vehicle.”
So what does this mean for Google? Well, this means that according to BBC, the autonomous cars are “one crucial step closer to being allowed on public roads”, which is quite a big step!
I am curious to see what the future holds, but if you were thinking that these cars would not be on the road in your lifetime, I would suggest thinking again. They are coming soon, and best believe when they do, they will be on the road.
Now do I want a autonomous car? Well, call me old-fashioned, but I do like driving. Heck, I would much rather drive a manual transmission car than an automatic. For the USA audiences, that may be a bit surprising to hear! At any rate though, these cars are coming, and it won’t be long before they are the most popular vehicle on the road.
That’s all for now, until next time…keep that tech gear ticking.
~Goliath7470