Google Would Like to Keep Driverless Car Testing Incidents a Secret

 Self Driving Cars  

Google's efforts to try and have California's regulations for testing of autonomous cars changed surfaced recently, with the search giant asking legislators to grant it the right not to report minor incidents occurring during the tests.

While driverless cars are largely expected to change transportation in a positive way, promising to eliminate human error – arguably the most common contributing factor behind most motor vehicle crashes – they could encounter a mixed perception among consumers once they hit the market. Ever since the idea of autonomous driving started gaining widespread media attention, mostly thanks to Google and its self-driving car prototype unveiled a couple of years ago, people have been voicing their concerns over possible invasion of car owners' privacy, along with potential safety issues, with a large portion of the public somewhat understandably hesitant about giving up control and handing it over to the car's computer.

Now, there is yet another reason for concern, with Google saying that it would rather not reveal driverless cars' testing data, indicating that there might be some potentially compromising information that the company would like to keep a secret.

Information regarding Google's efforts to try and have California's regulations for testing of autonomous cars changed surfaced recently, with the search giant asking legislators to grant it the right not to report minor incidents occurring during the tests, unless the car was operated in a fully-autonomous mode at the moment.

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Ron Medford, director of safety for Google's self-driving program, was quoted as saying that the California's DMV requirement for broad reporting will be a burden on manufacturers, and on the DMV, itself, and that the rules regulating the testing of self-driving cars “should be amended to limit required reporting to accidents involving vehicles operated in autonomous mode.”

Furthermore, Google asked regulators to withdraw the requirement for all instances of “disengagement” to be reported with the DMV. The term “disengagement” refers to a situation where the car's computer hands back control to the human driver, which doesn't necessarily mean that there is something wrong with the autonomous driving system. For example, these situations can occur when the car runs across an unmapped area, or a traffic sign or signal that was installed only recently and is not featured on the vehicle's map.

On the other hand, though, a disengagement can also indicate that the car is not capable of negotiating certain obstacles on the road, perform a specific driving maneuver, or handle a complicated traffic situation, which could pose a potential risk to public safety. That's why the DMV is adamant to receive disengagement reports, a requirement that, besides Google, has also been opposed by the likes of Mercedes Benz, GM, and Volkswagen.

Although no manufacturer would gladly share information that could harm its reputation, every car maker that is developing autonomous driving technology will have to report every single incident with the DMV if it wants to continue testing its driverless cars on California's public roads in the future.

The DMV expects to get the first disengagement reports from Google in January 2016, and intends to use them in the process of creating driver tests for driverless vehicles, as well as for creating a proper regulatory framework for when these vehicles become commercially available.

By Jordan Perch

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Author Bio - Jordan Perch is an automotive fanatic and “safe driving” specialist. He is a writer for DMV.com, which is a collaborative community designed to help ease the stress and annoyance of “dealing with the DMV”