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The British government has declared it is waiting for industry and international regulators to start creating standards for autonomous vehicles.
In a letter to the House of Lords, which had raised a number of questions about the Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill currently before Parliament, junior transport minister Baroness Sugg said the government is holding back until the various technologies have matured enough to be regulated without harming innovation.
"Whilst we do know that there will be different types of automated vehicles, with varying levels of sophistication, it is not possible at this stage to state what those changes will be. With this in mind it would not be appropriate to set definitive regulations in legislation at this time," wrote the baroness.
Her letter (PDF, 4 pages) explained that future autonomous vehicles intended for road use in the UK will probably go through the standard UK type certification process, as for every other type of road vehicle. Type approval is a blanket process.
"It is worth noting," added Baroness Sugg in her letter, "that necessary powers already exist to create new Motor Vehicle Construction and Use Regulations for automated vehicles through the Road Traffic Act 1988. It is for this reason that new regulation making powers are not necessary in the Bill."
(Score: 4, Interesting) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday April 06 2018, @12:52PM
No, that part comes after they've gained commercial acceptance. It's not at all shocking or terror-inducing that experimental cars that shouldn't be driving in public kill people. Take an established technology like a plane where people feel that there was a good bead on security and do something wantonly destructive.... Well Heath Ledger's Joker summed it up nicely.
Wait for it to enter mass production... then the hackers will find a way in and everyone will be all, "hey, how could that have happened? Aren't they secure?"
This sig for rent.