The U.S. House of Representatives this week passed a bill designed to speed up development of self-driving vehicles by removing some of the hurdles automakers currently face.
The bill essentially exempts manufacturers from certain state vehicle regulations. Currently, tech developers must work around each state’s individual laws. Because standards vary by state, achieving compliance can be a slow, bureaucratic process.
Ford, GM, Tesla, Uber, and Waymo (Google) are some of the high-profile companies pushing for autonomous driving technology. Navistar, another American company, is working on a self-driving semi-truck, which could revolutionize interstate commerce.
The bill now moves to the U.S. Senate for further discussion. More of this type of legislation is expected from the federal government to spur and incentivize advancement in self-driving technology.
You can read more about the passage of this bill in this story from ABC News.
Well the count down has begun to the end of the automotive hobby. Once the government mandates that all vehicles be autonomous the end of car culture will soon follow. I can’t believe there isn’t more push back on this from people in the industry and enthusiast in general.
Well said.
Only human beings have true autonomy. Self-driving cars are just a collection of programs. As assists to a human driver such functions as collision prevention have a use but ceding control as a driver to programming is agreeing to be transported livestock. If you think “I’m sorry Dave, I can’t drive you there.” isn’t in our future if these cars take over the roads, you need to think again.
[…] A similar bill was passed unanimously by the U.S. House earlier this month. […]