California took a big step in 2012 to effectively give the OK to autonomous cars on public roads. Now they're racing against a deadline to write the rules of the road for driverless vehicles. Looks like it's going to be quite a long road, though.
Yesterday, the state's DMV listened to concerns from just about every side of the equation. And there are still some big questions that have to be answered soon so that the rules can go into effect on the first day of 2015.
According to The Associated Press, there are tons of privacy concerns being raised, as you might imagine. Things like, who's going to see the data from the driverless car?
Then there are bigger problems. You know, stuff like, who's going to be responsible if a driverless car and another car have a crash? Whose insurance does that go on?
I watched the very end of the hearing yesterday and while it was always intended to be a listening thing on the part of the DMV, there was a sense of that office being overwhelmed with all of the questions and concerns. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out on Jan. 1, 2015.
Photo: AP