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Feds to study self-driving cars, urge state caution

James R. Healey
USA TODAY
May 7, 2012 photo of the first officially licensed Google self-driving car, a Toyota Prius hybrid, that got its Nevada plates after its application was approved to test the car on public roads under a new law that put Nevada at the forefront of autonomous vehicle development.
  • NHTSA plans research for regulation of autonomous cars
  • Will give state legislators guidance on safety issues
  • Says self-driving cars have potential for increased safety

The move toward self-driving cars is picking up speed quickly enough that federal safety officials are telling states not to license such cars except for testing, and say that companies making them will have to be especially vigilant and uniform in such testing.

"We want to stay ahead on this issue," said David Friedman, deputy administrator at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which Thursday announced a policy, a research plan and guidelines "for states, and for the industry, on how to move ahead on their testing programs."

It was a rare move by NHTSA, which is in charge of overall auto safety but doesn't like to take steps that might appear to cross swords with states over jurisdiction.

The NHTSA statement says that "America is at a historic turning point for automotive travel" and cited the "enormous safety potential" of heavily automated cars. It announced a four-year study of automated vehicle systems to prepare for regulation and to make recommendations for state laws.

"NHTSA is right telling states to slow down, think this through and don't rush into regulating driverless vehicles until there is more research," says Barbara Harsha, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association.

For all the hoo-rah, though, there are no real-world automated cars yet. A few with self-driving capability are being tested in states that permit them — only California, Nevada and Florida, though others are considering it.

Expect fast change, says Google CEO and co-founder Sergey Brin. "You can count on one hand the number of years until ordinary people can experience this," he said last September when California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law allowing self-driving vehicles.

Google has more than 500,000 miles on Toyota Prius and Lexus RX 450h vehicles that use radar, lasers, cameras and computers to autonomously go from point A to B without whacking other traffic. To emphasize the point, Google made a video of a blind man at the wheel.

"The Google car is the most automated," Friedman says, but even it is not "what I jokingly call 'The Jetsons Car,' where you sit back and enjoy the ride, and your job is just to tell the car where to go. Other than that ... you're not engaged with the car at all; it's like a plane or train."

NHTSA defined levels of vehicle automation from 0 to 4. The Jetsons' car would be a 4. Google's are Level 3, meaning a driver must be at the wheel able to take back control.

"Level 3 is truly in the testing phase and these guidelines are ensuring that the testing is done so it's safe for the driver and safe for everyone else on the road. We want to make sure the drivers in these test vehicles, for instance, have appropriate training," Friedman says. "How does the car warn the driver of the need to take over? How much warning does it give? How does the car interact overall with the person?" Friedman said, ticking off federal concerns to be studied.

In a level 2 car, many of which are on sale now, the driver is in overall control, but two or more automated systems such as adaptive cruise control and lane centering can work together to independently correct the vehicle.

At level 1, the driver's in charge, though what NHTSA calls "function-specific" systems, such as stability control (now federally required) may assist the driver. NHTSA said that its research into automated systems might result in more of them being required.

Level 0: "That's what most of us have driven most of our lives. You're the only thing responsible for all the core functions," Friedman says.

Simply defining levels of automation was a needed starting point, and NHTSA gave itself four years to research and make recommendations "before Level 3 begins to commercialize," Friedman says. "But if Google moves faster, we'll move faster."

Contributing: Fred Meier, Jayne O'Donnell

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