The Computer in Google's Autonomous Vehicle Can be Considered a 'Driver'

The reality of autonomous vehicles hitting the roads just took another step forward.

In a letter to Chris Urmson—the director of Google, Inc.’s Self-Driving Car Project—the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has said that Google’s Self-Driving System (SDS) can be considered the “driver” of the vehicle.

The “NHTSA will interpret ‘driver’ in the context of Google’s described motor vehicle design as referring to the SDS, and not to any of the vehicle occupants,” the administration writes in a letter dated Feb. 4, 2016. “We agree with Google its (self-driving car) will not have a ‘driver’ in the traditional sense that vehicles have had drivers during the last more than one hundred years.”

In the letter, the NHTSA outlines Google’s intentions to create an autonomous vehicle that removes “conventional driver controls and interfaces,” such as a steering wheel, throttle pedal, and brake pedal. Apparently, according to the NHTSA, Google is concerned that providing humans these mechanisms could be detrimental to their safety, as they might “attempt to override the SDS’s decisions.”

The NHTSA letter is a response to a Nov. 12, 2015 letter from Google, which asked the administration to interpret how Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards apply to Google’s autonomous vehicle design.

The NHTSA noted autonomous vehicles pose a problem for Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, because the standards were drafted at a time when it was assumed that all vehicles would be operated by a human driver.

The NHTSA said Google may want to apply for an exemption for certain regulations. The exemptions allow manufacturers to prove their safety levels are equivalent with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.

“The intricate maze of legal questions surrounding autonomous vehicles is as big a hurdle to their arrival as the remaining technological challenges,” said Kelley Blue Book senior analyst Karl Brauer, to the Financial Times. “However, if NHTSA is prepared to name artificial intelligence as a viable alternative to human-controlled vehicles, it could substantially streamline the process of putting autonomous vehicles on the road.”

In total, Google’s autonomous vehicles covered 1.3 million miles by November 2015. However, these test vehicles are outfitted with driver controls. According to a report filed with the California Dept. of Motor Vehicles, of the 424,331 miles traveled on the state’s roads, the vehicle disengaged autonomous controls a total of 341 times. Sixty-nine of those instances were a result of the driver taking control due to a perceived safety threat. The chart below can provide more context.