The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration handed Alphabet (aka Google) a key decision: it told the company that driverless cars could themselves be counted as drivers, paving the way for the emerging technology to hit the highway pavement, according to a Reuters report.
The company previously told the NHTSA its wish for clarification on driverless cars. In response, a February 4, 2016 letter from the administration stated "NHTSA will interpret 'driver' in the context of Google's described motor vehicle design as referring to the (self-driving system), and not to any of the vehicle occupants.
This is the first of many regulatory hurdles needed to get driverless cars like those designed by Google, Tesla, and other firms on the road. Fuller NHTSA proposed rules on driverless cars are due in about six months, after which we could enter an era of robots on the road next to human drivers.
Source: Reuters
