Autonomous Cars in US
Google Expands
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(WSJ 7 July 2015)
Google ’s self-driving cars have hit the road in Austin, Tex., the first time the project’s testing program has expanded beyond the streets around its hometown in California.
Google said late Monday one of the company’s Lexus RX450h SUVs has been cruising around a few square miles north and northeast of downtown Austin for a few weeks. The car, outfitted with cameras and sensors, is creating a detailed map of the streets, lane markers, traffic signals, curb heights, “keep clear” zones, and other information that helps the driverless software understand where the car is in the world.
In recent days, the software and sensors have started doing the driving after being guided by drivers, Google said. Two safety drivers will be in the car to take over if needed and provide feedback to Google engineers about how the car is behaving, suggesting things like smoother cornering.
Since the self-driving car project began in 2009, Google has mostly tested the technology in Mountain View, Calif., near its headquarters. The company has taken cars to other places like Austin and Washington D.C. in the past to give demos for a day or two.
Google said the Austin tests will help its software experience different driving environments, traffic patterns, and road conditions than in Mountain View. The company also wants to learn how people in different parts of the country perceive and interact with self-driving vehicles.
Another of Google’s SUVs will arrive in Austin later this week. If initial tests go well, Google said it hopes to map and drive more areas of the city.
US states embracing self-drive cars
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Whether it is fuel savings, safer commutes or freed-up time behind the wheel, drivers have many reasons to embrace self-driving cars.
But another group is just as eager to see these vehicles on the road: politicians.
Lawmakers from California, Texas and Virginia are wooing the autonomous car industry, along with the jobs and tax revenue that come with it.
They are financing research centers, building fake suburbs for testing the cars, and, perhaps most important, going light on regulation, all in an effort to attract a rapidly growing industry.
The prize: A piece of the estimated $20 billion automakers and other companies will spend globally on development over the next five years, according to an analysis by Gartner.
“The first thing is, don’t do anything to discourage,” said Richard M. Biter, assistant transportation secretary in Florida, which is among the states chasing the nascent industry. “It’s like the Hippocratic oath.” In June, the state designated 70 miles of roads in Northern Virginia for autonomous car testing. The roads run from hilly to flat and congested to clear, giving carmakers a variety of conditions for testing.
“If we are able to help companies by facilitating the process for them, we’re going to help bring business to the state,” said Myra Blanco, director of the Center for Automated Vehicle Systems at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Va. Opened in 2013, the center is funded by state and federal agencies and private companies. Ms. Blanco said her lab would help auto manufacturers run experiments and analyze data, along with taking care of licensing and insurance issues.
Michigan, sensing a potential threat to its traditional leadership position in the auto industry, is taking no chances. In July, officials unveiled a 32-acre testing ground in Ann Arbor specifically for self-driving car research — a mock suburb with asphalt and gravel roads lined by brick and glass building facades, where self-driving cars could be tested away from pedestrians. The state spent $6 million to build the facility, with an additional $4 million coming from private companies. “You can do the same type of test over and over again in identical circumstance,” said Jim Sayer, a researcher at the University of Michigan. “That is almost impossible on public roads.” The project has already spurred investment. Fifteen companies, including Ford, General Motors, Toyota and Honda, have committed to spending $1 million each to conduct research there.
And Florida is setting up a fake town of its own, outside Florida Polytechnic University. Officials want the facility, which is in the design phase, to be able to simulate urban and highway driving to test enhanced tolling and intersections, among other things.
The courtship is working both ways. Automakers are in turn asking states to keep new regulations off the books, arguing that if no state law explicitly prohibits the testing of self-driving cars, it is legal.
Florida is one of only a handful of states, including Michigan, California and Nevada, that have passed legislation addressing self-driving cars. Florida’s law is meant to make it easy for carmakers to test the technology there. For example, researchers in Florida only need to make sure that a licensed, insured driver is behind the wheel of an autonomous test vehicle and that the driver is able to take control of the car if things go awry. “We think the quicker we get to market, the safer we’ll make the technology,” said Jeff Brandes, a state senator who sponsored Florida’s self-driving car legislation.
Automakers are even asking states to carve exceptions out of existing rules for autonomous cars. One such request came in July, when Audi invited two dozen state lawmakers and regulators to Sonoma Raceway in California’s wine country. States generally have regulations against putting moving images on navigation screens, for the obvious reason that it could distract drivers and cause a crash. But Audi engineers said that drivers in autonomous cars would stay more alert if engaged with an in-car entertainment system, important if they need to take back control. Their solution? Make it legal for drivers to watch movies while the car drives itself. “Monitoring a technological system can be boring,” Klaus Verweyen, an Audi engineer, told the lawmakers. “To be bored is bad for bringing the driver back into control.”
Another proposed exception — from Daimler, maker of Mercedes-Benz — is to allow driverless cars to be built without side-view mirrors. The argument: They create fuel-wasting air resistance, and autonomous cars don’t need them to see.
California, though, has taken a more aggressive approach to regulation. The state required carmakers to apply for a permit before beginning testing. “All of the requirements in the California regulations are for the safety of the motoring public,” said Bernard Soriano, deputy director of the California Motor Vehicles Department. Despite overtures from other states, automakers have been unable to ignore the allure of Silicon Valley’s engineering talent. Ford Motor this year decided to open an office in Palo Alto, Calif., to spearhead its self-driving initiative. “We wanted to be in Silicon Valley and participate in the innovation community there for a variety of reasons, including but going beyond autonomous vehicles,” said Alan Hall, a Ford spokesman. Volkswagen and Daimler have labs in the Bay Area, the only places in the United States where each company conducts autonomous research. But even with California’s rules, the auto industry is still focused on stanching any further regulation by states.
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which represents a dozen carmakers, is instead looking to the federal government to get involved. The goal, automakers say, is to avoid a patchwork of laws around the country. But Congress has been quiet on the issue, and the federal agency in charge of road safety, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is simply trying to understand a technology that is racing ahead of the law. “We have a lot of catching up to do,” Mark R. Rosekind, the head of the safety agency, told reporters last month. “The first time somebody gets hurt or someone is fatally injured, we are the ones who are going to get the phone call.” Mr. Rosekind said regulators were talking with engineers in the auto industry. “There are different cars and different brands,” he said. “What needs to be standardized?” It’s not always so clear, he said. He cited a federal regulation stipulating that a turn signal be tied to a steering wheel’s movement. “Well, what happens when you don’t have a steering wheel?” he asked.
In the end, most of the regulation will fall to the states, experts say. “You’re going to need federal legislation to deal with certain things, but at the end of the day, every state has their own system of insurance codes and highways,” said Bradley Tusk, a political consultant and former campaign manager for Michael Bloomberg. “The idea that you’re going to be able to circumvent all of that is unlikely.”
Rodney Ellis, a state senator in Texas, proposed a bill this year that would have added his state to the list of those with self-driving-car regulations. But auto companies came out against the proposal. Google, which has its own self-driving car project, told legislators that it was concerned about the proposal, too. “Google said they had reservations about the bill, and that was enough for me,” Mr. Ellis said, and the bill was never voted on. He later acknowledged that the “legislature will eventually have to address autonomous vehicles.” Google declined a request for comment. By June, without any action from the state, residents in Austin began spotting Google’s self-driving cars around the city. “I was surprised to see it outside of California,” Victor Trac, a software developer in Austin, said after seeing one of the cars. A month later, Google made an announcement: It had began testing self-driving cars in Texas.
