Cars with no steering wheel, no pedals and nobody at all inside could be driving themselves on California roads by the end of the year, under proposed state rules that would give a powerful boost to the fast-developing technology. For the past several years, tech companies and automakers have been testing self-driving car prototypes in […]
Self-Driving Car Prototypes Need Less Human Help, Data Show
Self-driving car prototypes appear to be getting better at negotiating California streets and highways without a human backup driver intervening, according to data made public Wednesday by California transportation regulators. The data reflect safety-related incidents reported by 11 companies that have been testing more than 100 vehicles on public roads, primarily in the Silicon Valley […]
Uber Says It Will Keep Self-Driving Cars in San Francisco
Uber’s self-driving cars will keep ferrying passengers around San Francisco, the ride-hailing company said Friday — a few hours before state prosecutors threatened to haul Uber before a judge if the service is not suspended immediately. In a sharply worded letter, attorneys with the California’s Department of Justice demanded that Uber get a special state […]
California, Uber Still Negotiating Self-Driving Car Legality
Negotiations over whether Uber must stop its newly launched self-driving car service in San Francisco have concluded without a clear resolution, according to California transportation regulators. The state has threatened legal action if the ride-hailing company continues to pick up passengers in a handful of cars without having gone through a permitting process. Uber says […]
California Opens Pathway for Cars That Lack Steering Wheel
California regulators have changed course and opened a pathway for the public to get self-driving cars of the future that lack a steering wheel or pedals. It’s not going to happen soon, because automakers and some tech companies are still testing prototypes. But, in a shift, the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles said in a […]
Google Gives Federal Plan For Self-driving Car
Google wants Congress to create new federal powers that would let the tech giant receive special, expedited permission to bring to market a self-driving car that has no steering wheel or pedals. The proposal, laid out in a letter to top federal transportation officials, reveals Google’s solution to a major regulatory roadblock: U.S. law does not […]
California Wrestles With Making Self-driving Cars Public
Companies that are developing self-driving cars of the future want government regulators to clear the road for public access to the technology, once it emerges from current prototype testing. California’s Department of Motor Vehicles is wrestling with how to keep the public safe as an imperfect technology matures — but not regulate so heavily that the […]
3 Tracks Planned to Test ‘Hyperloop’ Transportation Idea
It’s a race befitting the goal of moving passengers and cargo at the speed of sound: Three Southern California companies are building separate test tracks to see how well the “hyperloop” transportation concept works in the real world. Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk breathed life into the hyperloop in 2013, when he proposed a network of […]
Questions And Answers About New Self-driving Car Safety Data
While self-driving cars already are being tested on public roads, newly released safety data support the cautionary view that the technology has many miles to go before people can sleep at the wheel. That doesn’t mean relief is decades away for commute-weary drivers. It’s possible, even likely, that within a few years, mainstream cars will be able […]
Eye on Safety, California Sets Rules for Self-Driving Cars
California regulators have unveiled a roadmap that would let consumers begin using self-driving cars, though manufacturers would have to prove the emerging technology is safe before a licensed driver could get chauffeured around town. The approach California’s Department of Motor Vehicles offered Wednesday in precedent-setting draft regulations is cautious, though it does allow that Californians […]