Tesla, Google


Tesla Motors Inc. wasn’t at the Detroit show but representatives say it’s going to compete with Google Inc., which is operating perhaps the best-known fleet of self-driving cars, and Apple Inc., which is presumed to be working on them. Tesla’s chief executive officer, billionaire Elon Musk, says electric cars capable of driving autonomously across the U.S. should be technically feasible in two to three years.

The Transportation Department is promising a quick response to companies that ask for interpretations for new features that might fall between the cracks of its 1960s-era set of safety regulations. Regulators will also work with state motor-vehicle departments on model regulations for registering and licensing self-driving cars.

John Krafcik, chief executive officer of Google’s self- driving car project, said the company’s role would be to make sure there’s an informed discussion about how the technology works and the safety benefits when decisions are made on issues like whether to require a steering wheel in future automated cars.


Human Error


“What we heard from the secretary today was a plan to help autonomous vehicles down the road,” Krafcik told reporters after the announcement.

Mark Rosekind, NHTSA’s administrator, said the self-driving car plan would be key to the agency’s attempts to focus on human error, which the agency estimates is a factor in 94 percent of fatal car crashes.

The technology enabling more autonomous vehicles is maturing rapidly, said Jim Barbaresso, vice president of intelligent transportation systems at HNTB Corp., an international construction firm.

The Transportation Department has been gathering data at pilot projects in Wyoming, New York City, and Tampa, Florida, Barbaresso said. That work builds on an earlier effort in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Researchers are getting closer to making the technology work on a larger scale, he said.

“They want to encourage automation,” Barbaresso said of U.S. regulators. “They want to accelerate the regulatory process and help companies start to produce vehicles with this technology.”