Govt. Promotes Driverless
Cars By Pointing Out Humans Suck
At a press conference discussing new guidelines for
autonomous vehicles, speakers emphasized how error-prone humans drivers areGovt. Promotes Driverless
Cars By Pointing Out Humans Suck
At a press conference discussing new guidelines for
autonomous vehicles, speakers emphasized how error-prone humans drivers are
Hands off
the wheel, puny human! — AFP/Getty Images
Sep 21,
2016 at 3:03 PM ET
The
Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration released federal guidelines regarding
autonomous vehicles on Tuesday. At a press conference, representatives from
both the public and private sectors emphasized the potential good these
cars can do by virtue of not being in the hands of terrible, flawed humans.
Secretary
of Transportation Anthony Foxx opened by calling the potential of
driverless cars a “transportation revolution,” and said “there has never been a
moment like this” in the history of the Department. Driverless cars can save lives
and even, he implied, bring families together because they can spend more time
together and less time in traffic.
“We still
have many people dying on our roadways,” Foxx said. “We have too many moms and
dads stuck in traffic, losing productive time with their families.”
Mothers
Against Drunk Driving President Colleen Sheehey-Church called autonomous cars a
“game changer,” noting that 94 percent of traffic fatalities are due to driver
error, and most of those are preventable. One way to prevent them, of course,
is not to have any human drivers at all, saving millions of lives and billions
of dollars. Henry Claypool, policy director of the Community Living Policy
Center, said driverless cars could be hugely beneficial for disabled and/or old
people, who are not able to operate vehicles themselves and don’t have access
to taxis or public transportation. Providing a somewhat different take was
retired general Jim Conway, representing Securing America’s Future Energy, who
noted that bad human-needing cars have made America heavily dependent on
foreign oil, which then requires military intervention to stabilize
oil-producing regions. The models of driverless cars currently out there use
gasoline more efficiently — or not at all, in the case of all-electric AVs.
Therefore, driverless cars are good for our national security.
Their
voices were echoed by President Obama, who wrote an op-ed in
Monday’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that also sang the praises of driverless cars
and their potential for increased safety and accessibility. He also mentioned
that the new field of autonomous vehicles would create new jobs but also “render
other jobs obsolete,” though little more was said about that potential bummer
news. Moving on!
Conway
also said members of the driverless car community were happy that the federal
policies weren’t “overly restrictive” and that they prevented autonomous car
regulation from being left to states, which would create inconsistent policies
across the country and make it impossible for the industry to really grow.
If the
companies that are at the forefront of driverless car development in America —
Google, Uber, Lyft, Ford, and Volvo — are pleased with the policies, it may be
because they lobbied the federal government hard to create them. In April, the
five companies came together to create the
Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets, an advocacy and lobbying group headed
up by former administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration David Strickland. The coalition said in a press release that it
welcomed the new policy because it made the rules standard across the country
and also “supports rapid testing and deployment in the real world.”
“We look
forward to continued collaboration with NHTSA and other federal and state
policymakers to further develop the national framework for safe and timely
deployment that avoids a patchwork of requirements that could inhibit
self-driving vehicle development and operations,” the coalition said.
Basically, it wants driverless cars on the roads as quickly as possible with as
few legal requirements as possible, and is already “collaborating” with the
NHTSA to make that happen.
The
guidelines, which were effective as of Tuesday but The New York Times points out
are not quite official regulations, emphasized safety, both in terms of what
the cars can potentially provide and making sure the cars themselves are safe.
They include a 15-point safety checklist for driverless vehicles,
recommendations for state policies that would standardize autonomous vehicle
regulations, and reinforce the NHTSA’s role in regulating both driverless and
human cars. The guidelines also introduced accelerated timelines for
regulatory matters regarding the autonomous vehicles, in order to better match
the speed at which these technologies are being developed. The NHTSA
insists the expediency will not come at the price of safety.
Despite
the NHTSA and driverless car makers’ insistence that the world is on the cusp
of a transportation revolution akin to the invention of the car itself,
autonomous vehicles are still in early days, only recently hitting public
streets in very limited capacities and with mixed results. By 2030,
though, it’s estimated that we’ll all be
driving them (or not driving them), creating a bright new future in which we
all get home to our families safe and in time for dinner. Or at least, that’s
what the people who make those cars — and the government — want you to think.
Hands off
the wheel, puny human! — AFP/Getty Images
Sep 21,
2016 at 3:03 PM ET
The
Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration released federal guidelines regarding
autonomous vehicles on Tuesday. At a press conference, representatives from
both the public and private sectors emphasized the potential good these
cars can do by virtue of not being in the hands of terrible, flawed humans.
Secretary
of Transportation Anthony Foxx opened by calling the potential of
driverless cars a “transportation revolution,” and said “there has never been a
moment like this” in the history of the Department. Driverless cars can save lives
and even, he implied, bring families together because they can spend more time
together and less time in traffic.
“We still
have many people dying on our roadways,” Foxx said. “We have too many moms and
dads stuck in traffic, losing productive time with their families.”
Mothers
Against Drunk Driving President Colleen Sheehey-Church called autonomous cars a
“game changer,” noting that 94 percent of traffic fatalities are due to driver
error, and most of those are preventable. One way to prevent them, of course,
is not to have any human drivers at all, saving millions of lives and billions
of dollars. Henry Claypool, policy director of the Community Living Policy
Center, said driverless cars could be hugely beneficial for disabled and/or old
people, who are not able to operate vehicles themselves and don’t have access
to taxis or public transportation. Providing a somewhat different take was
retired general Jim Conway, representing Securing America’s Future Energy, who
noted that bad human-needing cars have made America heavily dependent on
foreign oil, which then requires military intervention to stabilize
oil-producing regions. The models of driverless cars currently out there use
gasoline more efficiently — or not at all, in the case of all-electric AVs.
Therefore, driverless cars are good for our national security.
Their
voices were echoed by President Obama, who wrote an op-ed in
Monday’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that also sang the praises of driverless cars
and their potential for increased safety and accessibility. He also mentioned
that the new field of autonomous vehicles would create new jobs but also “render
other jobs obsolete,” though little more was said about that potential bummer
news. Moving on!
Conway
also said members of the driverless car community were happy that the federal
policies weren’t “overly restrictive” and that they prevented autonomous car
regulation from being left to states, which would create inconsistent policies
across the country and make it impossible for the industry to really grow.
If the
companies that are at the forefront of driverless car development in America —
Google, Uber, Lyft, Ford, and Volvo — are pleased with the policies, it may be
because they lobbied the federal government hard to create them. In April, the
five companies came together to create the
Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets, an advocacy and lobbying group headed
up by former administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration David Strickland. The coalition said in a press release that it
welcomed the new policy because it made the rules standard across the country
and also “supports rapid testing and deployment in the real world.”
“We look
forward to continued collaboration with NHTSA and other federal and state
policymakers to further develop the national framework for safe and timely
deployment that avoids a patchwork of requirements that could inhibit
self-driving vehicle development and operations,” the coalition said.
Basically, it wants driverless cars on the roads as quickly as possible with as
few legal requirements as possible, and is already “collaborating” with the
NHTSA to make that happen.
The
guidelines, which were effective as of Tuesday but The New York Times points out
are not quite official regulations, emphasized safety, both in terms of what
the cars can potentially provide and making sure the cars themselves are safe.
They include a 15-point safety checklist for driverless vehicles,
recommendations for state policies that would standardize autonomous vehicle
regulations, and reinforce the NHTSA’s role in regulating both driverless and
human cars. The guidelines also introduced accelerated timelines for
regulatory matters regarding the autonomous vehicles, in order to better match
the speed at which these technologies are being developed. The NHTSA
insists the expediency will not come at the price of safety.
Despite
the NHTSA and driverless car makers’ insistence that the world is on the cusp
of a transportation revolution akin to the invention of the car itself,
autonomous vehicles are still in early days, only recently hitting public
streets in very limited capacities and with mixed results. By 2030,
though, it’s estimated that we’ll all be
driving them (or not driving them), creating a bright new future in which we
all get home to our families safe and in time for dinner. Or at least, that’s
what the people who make those cars — and the government — want you to think.
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