DRIVERLESS CARS
The Uber self-driving collision of last month in Arizona has put a sombre slant, and - rightly so – an immediate halt to autonomous car testing in North America. Unfortunately this will curtail experimental self-driving vehicle testing by other companies such as Waymo, whose inaugural efforts are featured on this page. The caution expressed by the UK government over this issue is even more propitious and wise in light of recent events. Obviously we will bring you updates and developments as they happen.
WAYMO GETS FIRST US STATE APPROVAL FROM ARIZONA
Waymo is moving forward with a driverless taxi ser- vice after Arizona became the first US state to approve it for commercial op- erations without a human driver. According to Engi- neering and Tech- nology, the move will put Google’s driverless spin-off company in direct competition with Uber, which itself began autonomous trials in Pittsburgh in 2016. Waymo has been testing its technolo- gy for several years, but a commercial service has not been rolled out so far. In addition, all of the test vehicles needed to have a human driver at the wheel so that they could take control at a moment’s
notice
should the auto- nomous software drive in a dangerous fashion. The Arizona service represents the first time such a require- ment has not been stipulated. “As we continue to test-drive our fleet of vehicles in greater
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SELF-DRIVING TECHNOLOGY HELD AT A RED LIGHT BY UK GOVERNMENT
As the number of self-driving trials continues to rise, the UK Government has launched a review into the technology before it is set to take to the roads in the UK. CBR online reports that the UK Govern- ment has said it will carry out a review on legislation be- fore
self-driving
Phoenix, we’re tak- ing all the steps necessary to launch our commercial ser- vice this year,” a Waymo spokesman told Bloomberg. It recently struck a multi-million dollar deal with Fiat Chrysler Automo- biles to provide it with thousands of Pacifica Hybrid min- ivans. The Arizona Depart- ment of Trans- portation approved Waymo for a permit on 24 January fol- lowing an ap- plication for the company on 12 Jan- uary. The application re- portedly contained images of the autonomous Chry- sler Pacifica mini- vans. Waymo hasn’t re- vealed details of the service or the price that it will charge
riders, but without human drivers the cost is likely to be competitively pitch- ed against ride- sharing business rivals such as Uber and Lyft. Uber recently paid Waymo $245m to drop a court case over its driverless technology. Waymo alleged that Uber stole some of its driverless car secrets in order to gain a foothold in a technological race that it was losing. In a July 2016 inter- view, Uber’s then CEO Travis Kalanick said: “The minute it was clear that Google was getting into the ride-sharing space, we realised we needed to make sure there was an alternative, because if there is not, we will be out of busi- ness.”
cars will be let loose on UK roads. Lasting for a three- year period, the review will take into consideration the responsibility self- driving vehicles hold and their role for public transport. The review will look into the possibility of implementing new criminal of- fences with the use of self-driving cars. Developing the technology makes up part of the gov- ernment’s industrial strategy, which means the review period would be enough time to deploy the technol- ogy to Chancellor Philip Hammond’s expectations of 2021. The implementation of Brexit has held concerns for the UK to keep its status in the technology in- dustry, therefore if self-driving technol- ogy got the green light ahead of Brexit it would keep the UK in the race for world leader status
in the digital world. There has been a lot of talk around not only individual self- driving cars, but autonomous taxis and possibly other vehicles. The review will be carried out by the Law Commis- sion of England and Wales and the Scot- tish Law Commis- sion. Together, the bodies will look at how traditional laws in the UK need to be adapted to the issues of self-driving technology. Issues that will be examined within the review include look- ing at the role of automated vehicles in public transport, new criminal of- fences to be drawn up and the impact on other road users and how to ‘protect’ them from the tech- nology. Additionally,
the
review will deter- mine who will hold responsibility for a self-driving vehicle. Hammond allocated £270m to emerging technology, includ- ing the research and development of driverless vehicles. Therefore the re- view is important to roll out the vision held by Hammond and the rest of the government. Self-driving tech- nology has proved a success in areas already. London’s DLR service runs on an autonomous line,
as well as the Royal Borough of Green- wich experimenting with the technolo- gy. In Greenwich, the area has launched its ‘GATE- way’ self-driving technology initia- tive. Travelling at a top speed of 10mph, the technol- ogy operates a shuttle service to residents in the area to get them from A to B.
Although the tech- nology in this kind of capacity has proved a success, there have been concerns raised over the technology behind the idea. Some cases have demonstrated the concerns against the technology, such as the vehicles not ‘seeing’ obsta- cles or identifying a stop sign with graf- fiti. “The UK is a world leader for self-driv- ing vehicle research and development and this work marks an important mile- stone in our con- tinued commitment to the technology,” Roads Minister Jesse Norman said. “With driving tech- nology advancing at an unprecedent- ed rate, it is important that our laws and regula- tions keep pace so that the UK can remain one of the world leaders in this field.”
APRIL 2018
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