EuroWire November 2015

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November 2015 26
Automotive
As testing of driverless cars picks up,
few US states have regulations in place
governing their presence on public roads
“We’re having to learn on the go. It’s a signi cant investment.
But, on the other hand, it’s the future of transportation.”
For spokesman David Fierro of the Nevada Department of
Motor Vehicles, “learning on the go,” meant that the DMV had to
dedicate nearly half of its small research division for more than
a year to get up to speed on the technology of self-driving cars.
Other Washington Post interviewees expressed similar views, as
to both the pressure to master vehicle automation technology
and the bene ts to be expected from it.
But the Post’s Thad Moore was more struck by another aspect of
the autonomous vehicle phenomenon: an untypical reticence
on the part of lawmakers and regulators. When self-driving
cars take to the roads of Northern Virginia this year, the testers
behind the wheel will not need a special licence and the vehicles
will not need any special registration. “In the eyes of the law,” Mr
Moore wrote, “they’ll be regular cars.”
The Virginia authorities are not being irresponsible. The Google
self-driving test car will be equipped with radar, laser range
nders, and cameras to monitor its surroundings and dictate the
appropriate response. But it has the “right” to ply the roads not
because of its aptitudes but because the law does not stipulate
otherwise.
“Automated vehicles are probably legal,” the Post was told by
Bryant Walker Smith, a University of South Carolina law professor
whose research helped advance that interpretation. “That is the
default assumption.”
It works for Texas. Mr Moore noted that, when Google put
driverless, retro tted Lexus SUVs on the road in Austin this
summer, it was the rst time the tech giant had run tests
outside of California. Texas transportation o cials disclaim
any involvement with the project. Also on the strength of the
default argument, in March the parts maker Delphi Automotive
sent a prototype driverless car on a trip cross-country from San
Francisco to New York. The route took it through 15 states, nearly
all of them without laws that address autonomous cars. (“As
Self-Driving Cars Come to More States, Regulators Take a Back
Seat,” 28th August)
This was no stealth operation, either. According to the tech news
site Ars Technica, cited in the Post, John Absmeier – the director
of the British-based company’s Silicon Valley operation – said,
“[Delphi] reached out to all the states we were going to be
passing through, just to say ‘Hey, FYI, we’re going to be making
this journey.’”
† Late this year, self-driving vehicle testing will begin along
stretches of Interstate 95 and the Capital Beltway encircling
Washington, DC. Virginia has designated 70 miles of public
roads for the project, o ering to repaint roads or provide
high-de nition maps for tests sanctioned by the Virginia
Tech Transportation Institute.
But cars can legally be tested statewide, said Myra Blanco, who
runs the institute’s automation research.
† Researchers consulted by Mr Moore say that running
tests on public roads in the snarled tra c conditions of
Northern Virginia is a key step in developing lifesaving and
lucrative innovations. According to Lux Research (New York),
driverless cars could one day eliminate the leading cause
of tra c fatalities: human error. And the market for vehicle
automation technology could be worth $87 billion by 2030.
“On real roads is where you get your real gold standard,”
Ms Blanco told the Washington Post. “What is happening
when people are driving out there?”
Electric vs hydrogen vehicles essentially
comes down to Tesla vs Toyota, with power
availability strongly favouring Tesla
“By any measure, EVs are crushing hydrogen vehicles. But
understanding why may show why hydrogen is paying a game
of catch-up it may never win.”
Travis Hoium, writing in the investment letter Motley Fool ,
discloses his own preference for the electric vehicle produced
by Tesla Motors (Palo Alto, California). But his conviction that
hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles (FCVs) stand little chance against
today’s EVs has a basis in some hard numbers.
According to the electric vehicle news site InsideEVs, 320,713 EVs
were sold worldwide in 2014. And sales by mid-2015 had already
reached 200,000, with year-over-year growth every month of the
year. By way of comparison, Toyota, which has made the biggest
commitment to FCVs of any automaker, is launching its Mirai this
autumn at eight lots in California.
The company’s stated goal is to sell 3,000 units of the model,
inspired by the Japanese word for ‘future’, by the end of 2017.
(“Electric Vehicles Are Leaving Hydrogen in the Dust,”22nd August)
Transatlantic Cable
Image: www.bigstockphoto.com Photographer Zsolt Ercsel