You still have to rely on a sighted person. And a lot of blind don't have that.
Just some of us do. So in my opinion I would buy a regular car and let my
husband drive it.
Sent from my iPhone
On May 1, 2016, at 17:22, Vickie <happytraveler1972@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Kalen. Why can’t you drive? The first article Steve passed along, talked
about, and showed a video of a guy, who was blind, sitting in the driver’s
seat of a self driving car. There was a sighted passenger along with him,
but the car took him to the Taco Bell, and back home again, no problem. He
was thrilled, as I’m sure I would be given such a chance to be in his
position. When we park our travel trailer, I always get to pull the truck
away from the trailer, so I get to drive, every once in a while. About a
yard or so anyway.
Vickie Rolison
From: Steve
Sent: Sunday, May 01, 2016 9:49 AM
To: msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [msb-alumni] Self-driving car advocates say feds should set safety
rules
Self-driving car advocates say feds should set safety rules By Marco della
Cava, @marcodellacava, USA TODAY Federal auto safety and standards regulators
should set rules governing self-driving cars -- not state agencies that may
not have the technological know-how to assess the rapidly evolving technology.
That was the message delivered to federal administrators Wednesday by Chris
Urmson, the chief architect of Google's 7-year-old autonomous car program.
Urmson was one of a variety of auto experts speaking at a Stanford University
forum organized by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which
is soliciting comments as it aims to establish guidelines this summer for
companies developing autonomous cars. The event took place the day after
announced it was part of the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets, a
lobbying group of autonomous-car focused companies that includes Ford, Lyft,
Uber
and Volvo. The group is led by former NHTSA administrator David Strickland.
Strickland will lobby his former agency, which has been tasked by Department
of Transportation head Anthony Foxx with creating the rules. Last fall,
concern over a lack of such guidelines led Volvo Cars CEO Hakan Samuelsson to
caution
that "the absence of one set of rules means carmakers cannot conduct credible
tests to develop cars that meet all the different guidelines of all 50 U.S.
states. Google's Urmson told those gathered at the public meeting that his
company has watched "15 states propose bespoke laws over the last 12 months,
all of which have a different scope and different definitions. Vehicle-safety
standards are not the expertise of the states, and expecting them to take
on this role will only lead to inconsistent safety requirements. ... We would
like NHTSA to be the expert authority for the nation on this issue. Google
cars have logged more than a million miles in testing in Kirkland, Wash.;
Phoenix; Austin; and around the company's headquarters in Mountain View,
Calif.
The company's interest in having a federal agency take charge is set against
the backdrop of draft legislation proposed by the California Department of
Motor Vehicles that could require all self-driving cars operating on public
roads in the state to be equipped with a steering wheel and pedals. Though
Google's fleet of self-driving Lexus SUVs has them, the company's prototype
two-person people mover would lack both in a production version. Self-driving
car technology is maturing at a rapid pace, thanks to tech and auto companies
alike pushing hard into the space. For the most part, what's being developed
is an array of driver-assist technology that takes over on certain tasks. For
autonomous cars to become a national phenomenon there has to be a cohesive
set of rules and regulations, or a self-driving car leaving one state could
suddenly find itself banned in the next.
