With everyone from Audi to Google to Volvo developing autonomous vehicles, the federal government is cautiously getting behind the wheel to regulate how self-driving cars should be operated and legislated. But its recommendations are far from clear-cut, underscoring just how far behind the times Washington is with regard to emerging technology. Still, by stepping into the fray and attempting to codify when, where and how autonomous vehicles are developed and deployed, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is all but admitting that the day is coming when we’ll all let the robot drive.
“America is at a historic turning point for automotive travel,” the agency said in its preliminary statement on autonomous cars. “Motor vehicles and drivers’ relationships with them are likely to change significantly in the next ten to twenty years, perhaps more than they have changed in the last one hundred years.”
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