Proposed California rules would require self-driving Apple car to have human backup during testing
Draft rules proposed by the California Department of Motor Vehicles would mandate that all self-driving vehicles -- including Apple's -- have a human driver at the helm at all times, among other stipulations.
The rules are still subject to a period of public commentary before any approval, Reuters noted on Wednesday. Companies would also have to pass certifications, including third-party testing, and submit regular reports to the DMV for three years, while also obtaining approval to collect any data beyond safety systems.
Although imposing demands on carmakers, the rules are also meant to set out a firm direction for testing self-driving technology. The DMV's data will be used to guide future regulations.
At the moment 11 companies have permits to test the technology on California roads, all of which are already required to have human backups.
Any regulations will almost certainly affect Apple, which is believed to be working on a self-driving car for release in 2019 or 2020. Although Apple is likely to test in secrecy for as long as possible, any practical product will have to be put through government evaluation and real-world driving conditions, exposing it to the public early on.
The rules are still subject to a period of public commentary before any approval, Reuters noted on Wednesday. Companies would also have to pass certifications, including third-party testing, and submit regular reports to the DMV for three years, while also obtaining approval to collect any data beyond safety systems.
Although imposing demands on carmakers, the rules are also meant to set out a firm direction for testing self-driving technology. The DMV's data will be used to guide future regulations.
At the moment 11 companies have permits to test the technology on California roads, all of which are already required to have human backups.
Any regulations will almost certainly affect Apple, which is believed to be working on a self-driving car for release in 2019 or 2020. Although Apple is likely to test in secrecy for as long as possible, any practical product will have to be put through government evaluation and real-world driving conditions, exposing it to the public early on.
Comments
But...I can then see Apple deciding to not drive it in CA for testing so as not needing to comply.
Seriously though, it reminds me of those early laws that required someone to walk in front of a horseless carriage to warn the populace. It would also make a potential taxi service/uber disrupter using driverless cars not very disruptive.
Because otherwise, there's no article to write.....
There have been a lot of problems with these cars. Google has software engineers riding in every car. When odd situations come up, and I'll name a couple, they can get out of trouble right away, and even do some on the fly reprogramming.
A problem was a guy standing on a corner wearing a t-shirt saying STOP. The various sensors in the car couldn't distinguish whether this was a real stop sign or not, and refused to go.
Another problem was with another guy on a bicycle at a corner. As many bikers do, he was moving back and forth a bit on his bike waiting for the light to change. The car had the right of way, but just moved forward an inch when the bike moved backwards, and stopped when it moved forwards. The car went nowhere.
There have been many problems like these two. They didn't result in accidents, but they did result in the cars going nowhere, and holding up traffic.
idiotic statements like this one:
Itjdw said:
...are just an example of how people that follow articles like this are completely on another planet from the rest of the world, where driverless cars are total fantasy, not happening in this lifetime, and would not be welcomed by 90% of people that drive.
It is worth working on from a technical perspective, but for the real world it is DOA for at least this next generation.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-31/hacked-jeep-cherokee-exposes-weak-underbelly-of-high-tech-cars
Or as long as pedestrians always wear clothes with STOP sign logos on the front and back we should all be safe.
My prediction: we will see self driving trucks on specific, established long haul routes to special depots on interstate highways first. Union condemnation in 3...2...1...
http://blog.caranddriver.com/can-your-car-really-be-hacked-six-points-to-know/
In particular, the Miller/Valasek Jeep Cherokee wireless hack this past Summer, seems to prove a hack of this nature which takes over the entire vehical is indeed possible.
EDIT: just read the linked Bloomberg article ... why are you focusing on the door locking mechanisms? They took over and shut the entire car down wirelessly ... and whether or not it has been successfully accomplished before now, I'm not sure anyone can trust that such a thing won't be possible in the future. The only way to prevent it is to put a physical barrier between the CAN bus and the Infotainment system. And autonomous vehicle manufactures don't seem to be interested in doing that, since piloting the car without a driver requires input from the information gleaned from the web. So it's a concern that must be addressed.
Currently, self-driving cars simply don't work. Period. That is at least if by "working" it is meant that they can drive themselves in the same way and with the same level of safety and accuracy that the average half-drunk high-school student is able to. A simple downpour (heavy rain) completely stymies most self-driving cars. As does darkness, fog, etc. The sensors simply can't keep up and they can't tell where they are in such conditions, or where the road is. A car that only works on a sunny day on a clear highway in California might be exciting to California residents, but not to anyone else.
Not only that, but the more one looks into self-driving cars, the more obvious it becomes that it's essentially a dead end technology, because the problems that need to be overcome are almost completely intractable.
The easiest (and possibly the only) solution to the problems self-driving cars face, is simply embedding a strip of metal in the middle of the road for the car to "follow," so that's likely what will eventually be done. It's cheap and it solves all the problems. But even though we might still refer to them as such, they won't be "self-driving" cars after that will they?