Congress wants to hear where Google and automakers developing self-driving vehicles are with autonomous technology.
On Tuesday, Senator John Thune, who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, announced that the director of Google's Self-Driving Car Project, Chris Urmson, will testify before Congress next Tuesday (March 15) to discuss steps being taken to develop safe and effective autonomous vehicles.
Urmson won't be alone, either, as auto executives working in the self-driving space — from that of General Motors, Delphi Automotive PLC and Lyft — will also be on hand to share "advancements in autonomous vehicle technology and its anticipated benefits for Americans," according to the Committee, as reported by Reuters.
If you're wondering why Lyft will be present, in January, General Motors vowed to invest $500 million in the ride-hailing app to develop an on-demand fleet of autonomous cars.
This meeting comes just over a month since the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (Nhtsa) ruled that the artificial intelligence system steering Google's autonomous car could be considered a driver under federal law, paving the way toward self-driving vehicles possibly impacting roads around the 2020 wheelhouse that many automakers have targeted.
Ten days after that Feb. 4 announcement, though, Google's self-driving car hit a bus in Mountain View, Calif., demonstrating that there's still work that needs to be done. Google immediately responded, saying it tweaked its software following the accident to avoid similar incidents in the future.
According to Reuters, the Congressional committee is calling auto execs up to testify to gain insight "on the appropriate role of government in promoting innovation including removing unnecessary hurdles, and their strategy to grow consumer adoption of this new technology," the Committee announced, as reported by Reuters.
Although several automakers have circled 2020 as the target year for autonomous vehicles to be available to the public, auto execs working on self-driving development for both Toyota and Mercedes-Benz expressed skepticism to Tech Times about fully-autonomous vehicles being ready by then — suggesting that it's more likely that we'll see improvements in driving-assistance features instead.
It should be intriguing to see what Urmson has to say before Congress in particular, and how much weight it carries for the overall development of autonomous cars.
