White House hopes to shape national policy on driverless cars
- 8 years ago
The Obama administration said Thursday that it will work with auto makers and state governments on a national policy to speed up the arrival of driverless cars on U.S. highways.
The plan laid out by Foxx in a speech at the Detroit Auto Show foresees an active federal role in promoting high-tech innovations in an evolution toward self-driving cars that will take several decades to complete.
The federal push comes on the heels of data from driverless car developers that suggests that their vehicles perform admirably under the ideal conditions but run into more problems on unfamiliar routes or when the weather gets rough.
The software of autonomous vehicles needs plenty of tweaking and refinement to be city-street ready, but the basic ability of the cars to get around on their own has been proven by test vehicles all over the nation, including on the congested streets of Washington, D.C.
The plan laid out by Foxx in a speech at the Detroit Auto Show foresees an active federal role in promoting high-tech innovations in an evolution toward self-driving cars that will take several decades to complete.
The federal push comes on the heels of data from driverless car developers that suggests that their vehicles perform admirably under the ideal conditions but run into more problems on unfamiliar routes or when the weather gets rough.
The software of autonomous vehicles needs plenty of tweaking and refinement to be city-street ready, but the basic ability of the cars to get around on their own has been proven by test vehicles all over the nation, including on the congested streets of Washington, D.C.