Self-Driving Cars Gain Backing of U.S. Regulators

By Jeremy Hsu

1. U. S. federal officials apparently like what they see in self-driving cars: their potential to operate more safely and fuel-efficiently than the vast majority of human drivers. These huge benefits prompted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA ) to give a cautious green light to the autonomous driving projects of automakers and technology companies. The NHTSA is not alone. Nevada, Florida, California and the District of Columbia have already begun setting ground rules for the operation of self-driving cars.

2. Self-driving cars offer more than added convenience during a driver's work commute. Widespread use of fully autonomous vehicles could slash annual costs related to road accidents by $488 billion and save $158 billion in fuel costs as part of $1. 3 trillion in total savings for the U. S., according to a recent Morgan Stanley study. Get enough of them on the road, and you might even reduce traffic jams or end highway congestion.

3. Google's self-driving car tests have sparked the public's interest and excitement about the technology in recent years. But the Internet giant is still moving cautiously in figuring out how to market the technology and deal with related challenges. Ron Medford, director of safety for Google's autonomous car project, told that the auto industry must prepare to deal with fallout from accidents involving autonomous cars.

4. The automakers anticipate a gradual rollout of driver assistance technologies capable of handling stop-and-go traffic, parallel parking or long stretches of highway driving. Car events such as the Frankfurt Motor Show have showcased even more advanced technologies such as Bosch's emergency autonomous braking system and Ford's obstacle avoidance system that automatically steers around obstacles in the road.

5. But self-driving cars won't hit the road anytime soon, except for test drives. Still, major automakers such as Nissan have suggested they could have autonomous cars ready for dealerships by 2020. The time is needed to road-test each technology before unveiling the full autonomous car package. (1770 characters )