Self Driving Cars  

American safety regulators have issued long-awaited guidelines for self driving cars. This initiative clarifies that the US government considers automated vehicles safer than human drivers on the nation's highways. The move promises to open the door for rapid adoption of the technology.

Federal auto safety regulators have issued long-awaited guidelines on driverless cars, making it clear that they consider automated vehicles safer than human drivers on the nation's highways. Promising strong safety oversight while opening the door wide for driverless cars, Jeffrey Zients, director of the National Economic Council, said "We envision in the future, you can take your hands off the wheel, and your commute becomes restful or productive instead of frustrating and exhausting."

Guidelines for Regulating Autonomous Vehicles

The newly released first guidelines are designed to balance concerns over public safety with the commercial interests of companies like Google, Tesla, Ford, Volvo, and Uber. Four main areas were covered by the Department of Transportation guidelines. A 15-point safety standard for the design and development of driverless vehicles was announced, including how driverless cars should react in case their technology fails, how to protect passenger privacy, how to protect occupants in crashes, digital security of driverless cars, and communication between cars, passengers and others users of the road. Anthony Foxx, DOT secretary said that the DOT would have authority to recall semi autonomous and fully autonomous cars found to be unsafe.

Uniform Oversight

In addition, the DOT called on states to develop uniform policies for driverless cars, the application of current regulations to driverless cars was clarified, and the door was opened for new regulations on the autonomous vehicle technology. In order to avoid a patchwork of state laws, the DOT would have oversight of the software technology used in autonomous vehicles while the states would continue to regulate driver licensing and insurance.

President Obama, in a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial, pointed out the potential of automated vehicles to save tens of thousands of lives each year while calling on innovation to develop and deploy responsibly the technologies of tomorrow using flexible policies that evolve with new advances.

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Driverless Vehicle Insurance

Although several states where automakers are testing self-driving cars have already enacted specific regulations involving autonomous vehicles, insurance coverage for autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles is still handled the same as insurance for traditional automobiles. Although there may be potential questions whether the driver or the software would be at fault in an accident, the insurer would still pay the claim, since auto policies carry no exclusions for software defects. Hartwig of the Insurance Institute believes it is too early for insurance rates to be affected by self-driving systems since there is little actuarial date so far to indicate whether the frequency of severity of accidents is significantly affected by technology this new.

Evolving Liability

The question of liability itself may evolve in cases involving driverless cars. Liability coverage is a large part of automobile insurance premiums for most drivers, reflecting the insignificant cost of their vehicle's physical damage repair compared to paying hospital bills or court fees when another driver is injured. For example, California insurance rates require a minimum of $15,000 in bodily injury coverage per person and $30,000 per accident, and $5,000 in property damage. Self-driving vehicles on the other hand would theoretically not create negligence liability for passengers, non-drivers and vehicle owners.

As more driverless vehicles enter the public highways and mix with human-driven cars, there will be an intermediate transition period where humans will accustom themselves to the new technology. Infrastructure may change as smooth roads and clean, well-marked lane divisions needed by driverless cars may become more uniformly available. Insurance costs may drop with better roads and safer autonomous driving. What changes will enable autonomous cars to recognize snow-covered roads or react optimally in adverse weather conditions? New risks of damage to sensors or satellite malfunction may arise. If autonomous vehicle ownership evolves into a shared ownership model, how will risks be evaluated for drivers in different households. Insurance may also evolve into a no-fault form with each party responsible for their own repair costs, or a premium based on usage or mileage may be employed, or still other models as driverless car usage matures.

By  Lindsey Patterson	Embed
Author Bio - Lindsey is a freelance writer specializing in business and consumer technology.

 Self Driving Cars  

While this technology is still in early development, there are several possible benefits that could come from self-driving vehicles.

Once only a part of sci-fi movies, self-driving cars are quickly becoming reality. A few different companies, like Google, are testing autonomous vehicles in several countries. The process is coming along slowly, but the potential benefits keeps the work moving forward. Many are still skeptical about this technology, mostly because it is still in the early stages.

Like any new technology, self-driving cars already have their share of projected benefits and pitfalls. While many of these pros and cons are still “what ifs,” there are still some general benefits that could come from this technology when it becomes mainstream (whenever that may be.)

Safety

Humans aren't perfect. We get inpatient, we get sleepy, and we're arguably unsafe behind the wheel. In fact, an estimated 6,800 people were killed in traffic accidents in the first quarter of 2014 alone. Since upwards of 90% of crashes are due to our own faultiness, it only makes sense to remove the human error element from driving. Sure enough, the tests of self-driving cars back this up; results are promising, but obviously more study is needed. It is argued that technology and computers aren’t flawless, however, developers project that this technology will operate a car more safely than human drivers.

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Cheaper Goods

All those items on store shelves had to come from somewhere, and they had to be driven there by a person. If self-driving cars become mainstream, it's likely that commercial distributers will be among the first to pick up the technology. As the salaries for truck drivers are eliminated, consumers might see a drop in the price of their goods. Of course, this would come at the price of a tradeoff—lower prices for customers means a loss of jobs for drivers.

Less Traffic

Most experts accept that a good portion of traffic jams are caused by human error. From driving too slow, slamming on the breaks, or causing a crash, there is a lot to go wrong. Self-driving cars, however, don't get mad, don't overreact to events, and don't make mistakes. So, once more self-driving cars are on the road, we can expect to spend a significantly less time looking at brake lights. Keep in mind that it will be a long time before self-driving cars are a mainstream occurrence on our everyday roads.

Higher Productivity

Studies show consistently that the average American spends upwards of one week a year stuck in traffic. That's a lot of wasted time that employees could spend working, reading, or relaxing. Teenage drivers, on the other hand, will likely love the extra time spent safely texting or doing homework. Self-driving cars would provide drivers with a chance to multi-task (safely) while traveling—imagine how much you could get done on the long commute to and from work every day.

Fuel Savings

How people drive and the conditions they drive in greatly control the fuel economy of vehicles. After all, stop and go traffic or aggressive driving guzzles gas. Self-driving vehicles will likely be able to better plan speed control, understand traffic patterns, and find the most efficient route.

There's no doubt that more testing is needed, and the process will likely be slow. If you are still skeptical about self-driving cars, you should be—there is a long road ahead until these vehicles are trustworthy and fully tested. However, assuming that the results prove promising, self-driving vehicles have plenty of benefits to offer to drivers and communities. It might take some getting used to, but this technology is well on its way, and could be a large part of our future. The information for this article was provided by the Bachus & Schanker injury lawyers who specialize in car accident cases in Denver.


SOURCE  Top Image: commons.wikimedia.org 

By Dixie Somers

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 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”