America is finally ready to embrace self-driving cars (or California, at least), but Europe isn't as welcoming. The current laws, which are still an improvement from before, dictate that an autonomous vehicle must have controls that can be taken over by a human.
These rules aren't simpatico with the Google prototype that doesn't even have a steering wheel. BMW and Daimler AG are also working on autonomous vehicles, but the companies aren't optimistic about the European market right now. "The legislation is just not in place for us to be able to put these vehicles on the market," a BMW spokesman said.
However, Europe could be a better market for autonomous cars overall, providing they do allow human control. The European Union could make consistent regulations easier than America could, given the discrepancy between states. The region has also have also experimented with shuttle services and airport transport, and in 2017 Volvo will release 100 autonomous vehicles to the public. Still, it would be a shame for completely autonomous vehicles to be banned.
We can expect more official moves to be made once the need becomes more pertinent. But until then don't expect this all to be any less unclear.
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[via Ars Technica]
