Autonomous cars to be legal in state of Nevada

Nevada's governor has approved a bill that requires the state’s department of transport to enact regulations that would allow autonomous vehicles to operate on public roads. Assembly Bill 511 is mostly concerned with the treatment of low-emission and high-occupancy cars, but section eight paves the way for cars that will drive themselves with no intervention whatsoever from the person behind the wheel, if there is a wheel at all.

Google have been lobbying for such a change to the law since announcing that they had been testing a car that could drive itself on the roads of California. During thousands of miles of driving with a qualified driver sitting at the controls but not touching them - thereby complying with that state’s requirement for a human to be at least nominally in charge at all times - only one collision was recorded, when another car collided with Google’s while it was stationary at a junction.

The Bill eliminates the requirement in the state for a qualified driver, which first became mandatory in the US when New Jersey introduced practical and written exams in 1913, in just three clauses:

1. The Department shall adopt regulations authorizing the operation of autonomous vehicles on highways within the State of Nevada.

2. The regulations required to be adopted by subsection 1 must:

(a) Set forth requirements that an autonomous vehicle must meet before it may be operated on a highway within this State;
(b) Set forth requirements for the insurance that is required to test or operate an autonomous vehicle on a highway within this State;
(c) Establish minimum safety standards for autonomous vehicles and their operation;
(d) Provide for the testing of autonomous vehicles;
(e) Restrict the testing of autonomous vehicles to specified geographic areas; and
(f) Set forth such other requirements as the Department determines to be necessary.
3. As used in this section:
(a) “Artificial intelligence” means the use of computers and related equipment to enable a machine to duplicate or mimic the behavior of human beings.
(b) “Autonomous vehicle” means a motor vehicle that uses artificial intelligence, sensors and global positioning system coordinates to drive itself without the active intervention of a human operator.
(c) “Sensors” includes, without limitation, cameras, lasers and radar.
Expected uses for the technology include driverless taxis and delivery vehicles. The reception for the technology community for Google’s cars has been warm, and the search giant is hoping that the wider population will be happy with taking the leap from computers as driver’s aid to driver’s replacement.
The French city of La Rochelle has been testing a small fleet of robot taxis that can be called to ranks on demand. Lasers are used to detect pedestrians and other traffic hazards, but as French law bars autonomous vehicles on public roads a conductor has to be present at all times.