U.S. Proposes Spending $4 Billion to Encourage Driverless Cars

The Obama Administration propoed to spend 4 billion dollars over the time period of a decade to encourage the builing and manufacturing of driverless cars. The believe that by eliminating the driver they will be improving the 32000 annual road fatalities. Driverless cars can also help by reducing pollution and being more efficient. Companies such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Tesla Motors Inc. and GM are forcing regulators’ hand as they rush to make autonomous-driving vehicles a reality. GM earlier this month disclosed a $500 million investment in car-hailing service Lyft Inc. with an eye toward allowing customers one day order cars from a smartphone and have them appear with no driver needed. Advanced safety features such as automatic braking, lane-keep assist and adaptive cruise control are making many newer vehicles semiautonomous. The real-world ramifications of driverless cars are now emerging. Regulators, to an extent, want guidelines in place before crashes or other problems with driverless cars spark litigation. Tesla this week limited the use of an autopilot system on its electric cars after videos appeared online showing drivers reading while driving or sitting in the passenger seat while the vehicle moves. The changes, made through over-the-air Internet updates, restrict the system unveiled in October to roads with dividers and medians, and keep the car from exceeding a posted speed limit by more than 5 miles an hour. While driverless cars are closer to dotting U.S. roads in greater numbers, their widespread use could still be many years away, industry executives say. Americans in 2015 bought a record 17.5 million vehicles, spurred by cheap gas and low interest rates. There are currently roughly 250 million vehicles on U.S. roads with an average age exceeding 11 years. Replacing the nation’s car fleet would take two decades, said Mike Jackson, chief executive at AutoNation Inc., the U.S.’s largest dealership chain. Millions of Americans will likely keep driving older cars without the latest autonomous features for some time.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/obama-administration-proposes-spending-4-billion-on-driverless-car-guidelines-1452798787