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General Motors subsidiary Cruise has just received permits to test self-driving cars in San Francisco, without safety drivers behind the wheel. https://www.autonomousvehicleinternational.com/news/adas/cruise-gets-permit-to-test-driverless-vehicles-in-san-francisco.html [autonomousvehicleinternational.com]

According to Cruise CEO Dan Ammann, “We’re not the first company to receive this permit, but we’re going to be the first to put it to use on the streets of a major US city. Before the end of the year, we’ll be sending cars out onto the streets of SF ... The DMV permit allows the company to test five cars, on designated roads where the speed limit does not exceed 30mph. Testing is allowed at night, but not during periods of heavy rain or fog.
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... while it would be easier to do this in the suburbs, where driving is 30–40 times less complex, our cities are ground zero for the world’s transportation crisis. ...

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In other driving automation news, regulations governing automated lane keeping (a stepping stone to full self-driving) are moving closer in parts of the world, https://www.autonomousvehicleinternational.com/features/automated-lane-keeping-regulations-achieving-best-practice-in-functional-safety.html [autonomousvehicleinternational.com]

With less than six months until the new UN regulations on Automated Lane Keeping Systems (ALKS) are enabled, auto makers are preparing for a new ‘common rulebook’ for Level 3 automation of vehicles. But with an international standard for functional safety already in place, what does best practice look like in the new ALKS era?
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Set to apply to 60 countries including the UK, Japan and European Union member states from January 2021, the regulations are designed to enable the safe introduction of ‘Level 3’ automation features in certain traffic environments. At Level 3, the driver is permitted to take their hands off the wheel and eyes off the road, but is expected to be ready to take back control if required in case of malfunction or error.

The rest of the long (and interesting) article notes that there are several overlapping international standards that apply and coordinating them is still being worked out.

As reminder, SAE Level 3 allows the automation to hand-off to the human driver. Your AC submitter feels very strongly that this should never be allowed--because distracted humans take many seconds to develop situational awareness. One possible exception is if the automation *always* gives the human enough advance warning (10 seconds?, more?) to get oriented before having to control the car.

Original Submission