No-Human Self-Driving Cars Considered By California

After allowing Uber to conduct road tests of its self-driving vehicles on public roads, California might be the first state to have truly driverless car tests. This means that there will be no driver behind the wheel or perhaps even inside the car. This is a concept that other states have been resistant to due to the inherent risks to the prospect.

If California decides to finally allow actual driverless cars on its roads, it would be a monumental development in the auto industry since it’s exactly what companies have been asking for. Car makers like Ford and Tesla have been campaigning for government officials to relax road safety rules in order to expand the development of key technologies. It would seem that the DMV is ready to comply.

According to the agency’s proposal, discussions will be held pertaining to the potential opening of public roads to completely autonomous driving tests. This could include the absence of a driver within the vehicle or the removal of the steering wheel, both of which have been requirements up until this point if companies wanted to test their vehicles on the state’s roads.

Wired points out that there are some very good reasons for the adoption of this kind of technology, with the increasing rate of death related to traffic accidents being the biggest one. Self-driving experts have been saying time and again that unleashing autonomous vehicles on the roads will increase safety and decrease accidents simply because they are more reliable than human drivers.

For one thing, driverless vehicles do not get drunk and are not subject to road rage. For another, thanks to the sophisticated sensors in place, some of the leading examples in the driverless sector can actually see things on the road that humans can’t. These include hidden obstacles, pot holes or obstructions clouded by terrible weather conditions, and oncoming vehicles behind blind curves.