Computers can qualify as drivers, US agency tells Google

The technology used to power Google’s autonomous vehicles, not the human sitting behind the wheel, could soon be legally designated as the car’s driver, officials at the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) told the company in a letter made public this week.

According to BBC News, the legal breakthrough marks a shift in regulator policy, as previously an automobile without a human driver could not be considered road legal, while paving the way for the production of vehicles which do not require steering wheels or pedals.

“If no human occupant of the vehicle can actually drive the vehicle, it is more reasonable to identify the driver as whatever (as opposed to whoever) is doing the driving,” the NHTSA told Google in the newly-released letter. “In this instance, an item of motor vehicle equipment, the Self-Driving System, is actually driving the vehicle.”

The NHTSA’s ruling would allow Google’s autonomous pod to pass the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards test, meaning that the company could mass produce and market it, and that the vehicle would actually be allowed to travel on roads or highways anywhere in the country.

Ruling may make it easier to get self-driving cars on the road

The NHTSA sent the letter in response to a November request by Google in which the company inquired how federal safety regulations such as those about mirrors, seats, and brakes applied to a self-driving vehicle, The Guardian explained. Among the questions Google was seeking to have answered: Did the car have to follow a rule requiring “an occupant seat for the driver”?

After careful consideration, the agency replied that, in the case of autonomous cars, the “driver” would be the system controlling the vehicles movement, and thus no occupant seat was required. They added that the automobiles would “not have a ‘driver’ in the traditional sense that vehicles have had drivers during the last more than one hundred years” and that it was “more reasonable to identify the ‘driver’ as whatever (as opposed to whoever) is doing the driving.”

While Google has tested various versions of its self-driving car in California, Washington and Texas, the latest version of the technology lacks a steering wheel and brake levers, prompting the initial inquiry. However, according to The Guardian, the NHSTA also warned Google that while the software could legally be considered a driver, that it had no way to evaluate whether or not it would be a particularly good one.

The agency also said that the vehicle’s developers would have to find a way around other federal regulations requiring that cars have basic safety features such as brakes. While this could be done by petitioning for those rules to be changed or asking for an exemption, reports indicate that it is unlikely that the letter itself will have any immediate impact on the car’s development.

Karl Brauer, senior analyst for the motor vehicle research group Kelley Blue Book, told Reuters that while legal questions continue to surround self-driving technology, if “NHTSA is prepared to name artificial intelligence as a viable alternative to human-controlled vehicles,” then it may “substantially streamline the process of putting autonomous vehicles on the road.”

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Feature Image: Google