Not literally of course. No-one's going to go and put actual real hurdles out for self-driving cars to jump over, that would be silly. No, we mean legal and safety hurdles.
There has been a lot of publicity around self-driving cars lately, what with the successful SARTRE road train project testing and Google's work in the US, which led to California and Nevada officially licencing such cars for use on the public roads. But those of us looking forward to a future of having an electronic chauffeur on board might have to wait a bit yet.
The Alliance Of Automobile Manufacturers, a lobby group which represents a large chunk of the US auto sales industry, has released a statement saying that it reckons there's a way to go for autonomous cars.
“If the state’s intention is to promote autonomous vehicles, all the concerns – like liability – need to be properly addressed in advance, or we can expect a bumpy road ahead.” No pun, presumably, intended. The Alliance is quick to point out that insurance and law enforcement systems aren't really yet up to the task of dealing with self-driving cars, and that web security giant McAfee has already been sounding warnings of the possibility of such cars having their software interfered with. Doesn't really bear thinking about, that one.
Concerns are also being raised over privacy and the fact that autonomous cars could potentially be reporting a person's location and travel details without their consent.
Sounds like good lawyer-fodder to us.
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