Self-Driving Cars Licensed In Nevada
Ah, Sin City. Famous for gambling, hookers, and now of course, Google’s fleet of self-driving Pruii.
Google’s autonomus vehicle program has been in the news for awhile, but until now was confined to closed airports and other test locations removed from the public. But after today they’ll be at large in traffic, possibly including the Vegas Strip.
So far Nevada is the only state authorizing Google (and reportedly, “a number” of other companies looking to follow suit) to interject these autonomous-autos into the wild.
From PCWorld-
“To be approved for road travel, autonomous cars must have a combined minimum driving time of 10,000 miles. Nevada also requires autonomous car operators to submit a complete description of their self-driving technology, a detailed safety plan, and a plan for hiring and training test drivers. The state requires a $100 licensing fee plus $13 for each set of license plates, but companies must also purchase a surety bond of $1 million to put up to 5 vehicles on the road. Nevada says a number of other unnamed companies are looking to follow Google and test self-driving cars on the state’s public roads.”
Even in its fledgling state, such technology is pretty fascinating.
The Pros? Well, a serious reduction of drunk driving incidents that’s for sure. And honestly, I’d bet my safety on a robot driving over most of the motorists with licenses in this country.
But in twenty years, will this mean I’ll have to race through autonomic traffic to uncover a secret robot conspiracy as the only one left on a motorcycle?
Awesome.
