Driverless Vehicles Make Inroads in Military - Velodyne Lidar

Uncanny valley
Rules $ of the Road
States Line Up for Driverless Car Dollars
Legislation on driverless cars has the distinction of
being both a right of passage for a state interested
in allowing self-driving vehicles on its roads, while
also — as many states have admitted — being somewhat
unnecessary.
Currently only Nevada, Florida and California have legislation
allowing the testing of driverless cars on their
roads. But, with a large push from Google, many other
states are coming to the fore to stay ahead of the pledge
by many auto manufacturers to have commercial selfdriving
cars on the road by around 2020.
Other states that have proposed legislation include Colorado,
Michigan, Wisconsin and Oregon, along with
the District of Columbia, to name a few.
California, which passed driverless car legislation in Senate
Bill 1298 in September 2012, acknowledged in its
bill language that driverless cars were not explicitly prohibited
in any laws already on the books. In fact, Google
did the lion’s share of its more than 400,000 self-driven
miles in the company’s home state prior to the bill’s passage.
The same is true for pending legislation state Michigan.
As of June 2012, speaking at AUVSI’s Driverless Car
Summit 2012 in Michigan, the state’s Director of the
Department of Transportation Kirk Steudle believed
that despite a lack of legislation, testing self-driving cars
was still legal.
“We don’t think there’s a prohibition right now.”
But, regardless, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder took up the
issue in his State of the State address in January 2013,
and State Sen. Mike Kowall introduced legislation on
the issue on 7 Feb.
So if legality is not holding driverless cars back, what’s
with all these states clamoring over being the next to
have driverless car bills A simple answer is money, particularly
for Michigan, which prides itself as the United
States’ hub of motor vehicles and relies on auto manufacturer
dollars to stay in the state.
Kowall explained to The Car Connection that automotive
supplier Continental expressed desire to relocate to
Nevada after that state, the first to pass legislation, came
up with a licensing process for self-driving vehicles.
Though there’s no timeline for Michigan to pass legislation,
nearby states are ramping up efforts to get a slice of
what is traditionally the Wolverine State’s pie.
State Sen. Fred Risser’s proposed driverless car bill would
mean nearby Wisconsin, not Michigan, could be the
first Midwestern state that allows driverless car testing.
His bill was proposed in February of this year.
States that don’t have a direct financial tie to the automotive
industry are pitching driverless car bills to
their constituents for alternative reasons. Oregon State
Rep. Sara Gelser, who introduced House Bill 2428 in
January, says driverless cars tie into her prior interests
of helping people with disabilities to stay empowered
through mobility. Oregon also currently has laws that
do actually prohibit driverless vehicles.
“Our legislation does require that there is [a] driver in
the car that is sitting [in] the driver’s seat, who is [a]
licensed driver,” said Gelser in an interview with NPR.
“The standards that we are proposing in this bill would
require that there be an override feature on the car. So if
there is a problem, that licensed driver that is required to
be in the driver’s seat could take control of the vehicle.”
Another major factor in passing legislation is technology
giant Google. Oregon would give the company three
connected and massive states in which to take their vehicles
on a road trip. And it seems when it comes to state
legislation that whatever Google says goes.
The one anomaly in all the passed, proposed and pending
legislation comes from Colorado, which shelved its
driverless car bill, sponsored by State Sen. Greg Brophy.
According to a statement by Brophy in the Denver Post,
the bill got stuck because of objections by Google. Brophy
said the company had “reservations,” but wouldn’t
comment on further questioning by the paper.
12 MISSION CRITICAL • May 2013