Posted on 01/14/2016 12:57:51 PM PST by Citizen Zed
The Obama administration is taking a $4 billion gamble on self-driving cars as the vehicles of the future.
This past Thursday at the Detroit Auto Show, Department of Transportation secretary Anthony Foxx unveiled a plan to develop a legal framework for autonomous driving technology that would encourage consistent rules across all 50 states. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will be in charge in drafting the framework.
Although the federal government can dictate manufacturing regulations, non-interstate highway traffic laws are left to the states. California, Nevada, Michigan and Florida have their own respective regulations on self-driving cars, creating a rough patchwork of rules.
Foxx also announced that President Obama will put in around $3.9 billion into the 2017 budget for a 10-year plan to support the development of autonomous driving technology.
"We're entering a new world here, and we know it," said Foxx during the press conference, flanked by representatives from Google, General Motors and other companies in the self-driving car race. "We ask ourselves what if human error could be eliminated? That is a possibility worth pursuing."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
Understood!, Much!
Im sure vice president ivana will handle this..../s
Too bad.
Ultimately on saved lives as robots crash less and less frequently than drunk and distracted humans.
Since the government long ago claimed the roads and most rights of way, I am not too upset to see some investment in making those thoroughfares safer.
10s of thousands killed annually because 'we've always done it this way!' is kind of dumb.
Totally ridiculous.
Corporate welfare for law firms. $4 billion to establish a legal framework? Let the companies involved establish the framework at their expense, thank-you.
That's understandable. I've always had a car I've enjoyed driving. Now I'm driving a Z06, but I'd trade it in tomorrow for a self driving car that I could have handle my six mile commute daily, or take/pick someone up from grandma's, etc.
Self driven cars will be around for a long time just because so many miles of roads are simply not maintained to the standards that will make a robot safer. I grew up on a dirt road, and they're not going away soon.
I’m not letting ‘em drive me anywhere, least of all crazy. I just sit back and play Santa Claus, giving annual gifts by the quarter and making a list..checking it twice. If ever there is a holiday, I’ll have a couple of decks of cards of my own.
There is a lot more I would do with billion dollar lotto winnings than invest in self-driving cars.
Hey, THAT IS OUR TAX MONEY HE IS FOOLING WITH !!
The government did so well investing in solar power, this makes great sense.... /s
They are going to be solar powered. Solyndra is making the plates.
Robots have yet to drive in white-out conditions in a blizzard. I have. Can a robot tell what a deer is going to do by its posture? How well do they drive on black ice? Can they evaluate which way a vehicle is headed by which was the front tires are turned? Can they avoid the door being opened by the driver of a freshly parked car because they saw the driver reach for their purse before they turned toward the door?
No thanks, I'll drive myself.
“investing” = pissing taxpayers’ money away to political friends
These criminals unfortunately have no opposition in the idiot GOPe.
google recently apologized for having been responsible for several crashes of thier auto-mobiles.
computers crash too. and they don’t even NEED to be drunk or distracted.
most accidents occur within a few miles form home. How many automated highways...could their ever be in your or my Niegborhoods?
Not ready for prime time!
First, with the questionable exception of the US Mail Service (1.8.7) and possibly military purposes, while the project is arguably a good idea, the states have never delegated to the feds, expressly via the Constitution, the specific power to regulate, tax and spend for INTRAstate purposes. This is evidenced by the following excerpt.
”Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States.” - Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
And this leads to the second problem.
Why single out the Obama Administration as the culprit for this project?
More specifically, given that the Founding States gave the ”power of the purse” uniquely to the House of Representatives (1.7.1), the House wrongly funded the Obama Administration for this project imo.
Again, while the project is not such a bad idea, it remains that the corrupt feds are working it outside the framework of the Constitution imo.
Remember in November !
So if patriots elect Trump, or whatever conservative they elect, they will also need to elect a new, state sovereignty-respecting Congress that will work within its constitutional Article I, Section 8-limited powers to support the president.
In fact, note that such a Congress will also probably be willing to fire state sovereignty-ignoring activist justices who likewise help to empower bad-apple presidents to do unconstitutional things.
Have you ever been sitting at a 4-way traffic light and in each direction, NO ONE is moving? Yep. We all have! Why can’t”government” fix that?
Answer? They could but they don’t want to! Nothing in it for our pos leaders. They LOVE to use technology to catch us doing things, but they never really want to use it to help us move along. And their favorite is to use technology to prevent us from doing things because they are restricting our freedom!!
They want easy to manage pod-people stacked up in urban center he’ll-holes. I will NOT comply!!!
The day these things are approved for use is the day I quit driving.
lol
Could I please have the citation of budget authorization for this. No one ever asks where the authorization for these expenditures comes from. The executive branch does not control the budget.
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