California Seeks To Steer The Driverless Car (Off The Road)

The scene is California, specifically Northern California, home to Silicon Valley and some of the most aggressive automotive regulations in the world. The hottest technologies on the market revolve around the autonomous car concept. Google has had its custom self-driving Lexus SUVs running around for years and has augmented them with low-speed fully self-driving tech that allows them to navigate the streets of Mountain View. And at least a dozen other startups and mature companies like Cupertino-based Apple and Oakland based Uber are diving into autonomy as the Next.Big.Thing.

- Michael Coates

When it comes to vehicle autonomy, there are no small promises — zero accidents, more efficient freight movement, and greater mobility. The goal is to create a system that “drives more like a human,” achieves “100 percent accuracy,” and “superhuman levels of perception,” according to Danny Shapiro, Senior Director of Automotive at the data visualization company NVIDIA. Given these lofty goals, it makes you wonder how long it will be before we’re actually buying self-driving cars. Shapiro is coy on that subject, but he’s more than willing to inform you that his company is currently working with 80 different automakers.

Really, with all this momentum, the question is not so much whether the goals will be met, but rather whether they’ll be met in Silicon Valley or somewhere more legally hospitable.

Indeed, the California Department of Motor Vehicles has decided to create some new regulations for this fast-growing industry, ostensibly to help it progress, while protecting consumers. The result from the first round of laws (which outlawed driverless vehicle testing) was clear-cut. Instead of staying in Cali, Daimler/Freightliner demonstrated its self-driving truck in Nevada, and an Uber autonomous ride-hailing pilot started in Pittsburgh, PA.