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U.S. Senate panel approves self-driving car legislation
Wednesday, October 4, 2017 · 5:44 pm ·


“A U.S. Senate panel on Wednesday unanimously gave the green light to a bill aimed at speeding the use of self-driving cars without human controls, barring states from imposing regulatory road blocks,” David Shepardson reports for Reuters. “After unanimous approval by the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, the full Senate must take up the bill. The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a similar bill last month.”
“Like the House bill, the Senate version does not include allowing exemptions to speed approval of self-driving technology for large commercial trucks. Despite complaints from some Republicans, the panel opted not to include them after labor unions raised safety and employment concerns,” Shepardson reports. “The measure is the first significant federal legislation addressing self-driving cars. It would allow automakers to win exemptions from safety rules that require cars to have human controls.”

“Senator John Thune, the Republican who chairs the Commerce Committee, said the bill ‘underscores the bipartisan desire to move ahead with self-driving vehicle technology… The safety and economic benefits of self-driving vehicles are too critical to delay,'” Shepardson reports. “Several Republican senators noted the strong support of trucking organizations to include vehicles over 10,000 pounds, but Democrats resisted that part of the proposal. Tesla Inc, Alphabet, Uber Technologies Inc and others have said they are working on self-driving trucks.” U.S. Senate panel puts self-driving cars in fast lane | Reuters

From a car guys perspective, it is a sad day .

Cabbies, limo, uber, lyft drivers.

Start looking for a new source of income.

we had a related question at the promotional interview i just took. Its the real deal.

what a crock of pooh.

mass transportation is the answer to so many issues and here we are moving as far away as possible from it.

the USA for the most part was not set up for mass transit.

the mega malls and stuff built up on the fringe of cities is the draw to people. we dont usually have a central downtown everyone is headed to.

SF is pretty good. El Paso texas..not so much.

+1
Get all those people who don't care about driving and cars off the road so the rest of us can enjoy it.
But mass transit = taxes so it isn't going to happen here.

One issue with mass transit is it is hard to use for people used to driving. I have been on the wrong bus/train in Europe and in US cities so many times because I couldn't figure out the complicated schedules and lines. Driving is pretty much the same everywhere.

Without total legal immunity for automakers this will never happen. Was that included in the bill?

Otherwise every time there is an accident the owner will sue the automaker (or their auto insurance will sue) and there certainly will be scenarios that the vehicle will calculate the path of least resistance...hit another car or hit a pedestrian...etc.

Having been in IT/Technology for 27 years, this scares the carp out of me. We are really going to trust a computer to make a split second decision on whether or not to hit the ball rolling into the street, the kid chasing the ball, or the dog chasing the kid? No thanks.

Considering how many people I see actually looking at the road while driving, I say this could turn out to be a good thing.

Now those idiots can talk and text away undistracted by the nuisance of operating a 2 ton vehicle at the same time.

I'd rather have these than folks on their phones or putting make up, or reading a book (yes, I have a photo), or drunks... It'll probably make my commute faster because these cars won't be programmed to switch lanes as much.

Another perspective: think about all the threads here where people feel anguish 'taking the keys away' from an elderly parent.

A self driving car solves that problem and does not diminish your freedom.

Mass transit ONLY work in large high population areas. Yea, in some little tiny state like most of New England, it is great. Mass transit is a joke in the VAST majority of the USA. Montana or North Nevada will never need mass transit, there is no mass to transit.

Honest question, because I don't know. What mass transit systems in the USA are actually operating and maintaining a safe system without huge taxpayer support? I know Amtrak is almost as profitable as the post office and as safe as running with scissors when drunk.

Anyone that has made the drive from Kansas City to Denver (or visa-versa) has seen a whole lot of open country and had a long boring drive. It would be ideal for a automated car. Set it on the destination and take a nap or read a book or surf the internet.

I plan to drive my own car for as long as I am able. I do see the day coming that I will open an App on my phone and a automated car will come to my location and I will get in and enter my destination and when I get there it will drive off to the next client. When I am ready to go home a different car will show up. I will no longer need to own a car. Almost no waiting, and cheaper than mass transit.

Not entirely true.

Suburban and the sticks don't make sense all the time for mass transit. Similar to how some people still can't get broadband even today. Not enough population density to justify the expense.

But as far as mass transit where you'd expect it but don't have it, that's another story.

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I, for one, embrace our new robot overlords.

Was side by side with 2 driverless cars in SFO today (well technically there was a driver but he was hands off), Chevy bolts EV with extensions galore all over... The stupid things would stop for no reason and almost get rear ended every minute or so, nowhere near an intersection or a valid reason to stop... The "driver" looks pissed off, the guy behind even more so... It was funny to watch, but you know it's coming... Didn't think I'd see it in my lifetime but it looks like it's only a few years away... It also looks like there will be ample room for us dinosaurs in human driven cars to F$%# with those cars if we share the road ;-) They seem like they will always brake for you if you merge in their lane ;-)

The Continental United States is too spread out for a viable mass transit system.

In theory autonomous vehicles sound great. Practical application, not so much.

The quality of the roads and weather is going to cause problems.
Autonomous vehicles dealing with driver based vehicles and their unpredictability is going to cause problems.
When someone tries to take control of their autonomous vehicle and drive themselves or tries to drive a driver based vehicle after getting in the habit of having and autonomous vehicle forgets what the heck they are doing while driving will also be a problem.

The Bolt self-drivers are incredibly complicated, I did some work on the technology side...they are not 'affordable' as presently configured.

The cartoon in the first few minutes is awesome. :)

I read an interesting article recently where the author expressed some concern over having robots destined to perform so many tasks for us in the relatively near future. His point was that having to consider multiple options and make on-the-spot decisions while engaging in everyday activities, like driving a car, is actually 'exercise' for our brains. What's going to happen down the line once people are freed from having to really think about much of anything? Sadly, many will just spend even more time playing with their phones.


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