Companies working on autonomous driving technology see the lack of national strategy for self-driving vehicles in the U.S. as a huge obstacle that prevents a faster commercialization of the technology.
Last week, some of the driverless car leaders appeared before Congress to report on their progress in the development of self-driving technology. They took that opportunity to urge legislators to accelerate the process of creating a unified strategy for regulating autonomous cars, in order to bring them to market as soon as possible.
Demanding Consistent Self-Driving Car Laws Across All States
Executives from Google, the undisputed leader in driverless car currently, along with Detroit automaker General Motors, automotive supplier Delphi Automotive and ride-sharing service Lyft, testified before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, in a hearing titled “Hands Off: The Future of Self-Driving Cars”.
The main point that self-driving car leaders wanted to make during the hearing was that a cohesive national strategy was necessary in order to keep the United States at the forefront of autonomous car development, and avoid being overtaken by other countries in the race to be the first to bring driverless vehicles to market.
“If every state is left to go its own way without a unified approach, operating self-driving cars across state boundaries would be an unworkable situation and one that will significantly hinder safety innovation, interstate commerce, national competitiveness and the eventual deployment of autonomous vehicles,” said Chris Urmson, head of Google’s self-driving car program.
This sentiment was shared by some of the Senators involved in the questioning. “We’ve heard countries like Sweden, Korea, China, and Japan have already established these test sites,” said Sen. Gary Peters (D-Michigan). “We need to do it as well.”
What’s more, Google asked legislators to consider allowing the U.S. Department of Transportation to approve the deployment of new vehicle safety technologies that comply with federal safety standards currently in effect, which would help put autonomous cars on the road faster.
Privacy and Security Biggest Concerns for Lawmakers
Committee members, for their part, were mostly concerned about the potential security risks and invasion of privacy associated with autonomous cars. These two points seem to be among the main factors creating differences in opinion between industry leaders and lawmakers.
Senator Edward Markey (D-MA), who led the hearing, asked the industry representatives whether they are in favor of introducing mandatory safety and privacy federal standards, and neither of the executives gave a straight answer, which can be interpreted as a sign that they don’t support such a decision.
The consensus among self-driving car developers seems to be that lawmakers should leave it to companies to decide themselves how they will prevent cyber attacks and how they will store and use data collected from autonomous cars, and make sure the technology is safe enough to replace human drivers.
Lawmakers obviously don’t agree with this kind of attitude, and it will surely remain one of the key hurdles for driverless cars in the near future.