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Nevada approves rules for self driving cars
The Silver State is a great place to be if you’re a fan of losing a bunch of money on games of chance, nuclear testing grounds, or, apparently, driverless cars. Yesterday, the state approved rules on operating those creepy Google cars that have no humans in the wheel yet somehow don’t kill people constantly.
The rules state that
- Companies must post a 1-3 million dollar bond for testing the cars.
- Two humans must be in the car at all times.
- Cars must have black box recorders. I guess that’s so we can listen to the foreboding signs of the robopocalypse.
I am surprised at the lack of excitement and cynicism regarding self-driving cars, like it was some kind of unrealistic, impractical and dangerous fantasy. We have drones that fly alone and nobody doubts their efficacy a bit. Self-driving cars will come, very soon, and probably change society a good deal. I look forward to stepping out of my home into a waiting vehicle that drops me off at my office and then drives away, freeing me from the bother of driving and parking while giving me private time to read or nap during my commute. The technology is here; it works and the benefits are huge for consumers, probably less so for car makers who may see declining sales as folks like me prefer to pay for a self-driving door to door car service rather than vehicle ownership.
