“It’s obviously no secret self-driving cars is a hot topic right now,” said Katie Stebbins, assistant secretary for innovation and technology for the Department of Business Development. “Massachusetts — being a leading technology state — is certainly not going to sit on the sidelines and let this happen.”
A cadre of state officials will gather Wednesday to hear from dozens of top-tier tech companies, educational institutions and research organizations about how to best regulate self-driving cars in Massachusetts.
State officials declined to provide a list of attendees, but have said in the past companies including Google, Audi, Tesla and Uber were invited — along with a number of local startups.
“As a startup in the Boston area what we would love to see is some clarity around the regulatory environment for testing in Massachusetts that’s lacking at the moment,” said Karl Iagnemma, chief executive of nuTonomy, a Cambridge-based company looking to develop self-driving cars that can handle busy city streets.
“It creates uncertainty and it makes it hard to make plans for the future,” he added.
Iagnemma said his company has to go all the way to Singapore to test out its vehicles, because the Asian city has clear regulations for autonomous cars.
Massachusetts has become a hub for self-driving car research, with teams from MIT, startups and companies including Toyota and Audi setting up search centers in the Bay State.
Officials are hoping to make the state the center of self-driving car research, and see the potential for significant economic benefit for local researchers and manufacturers. Researchers and experts say Boston offers challenges for self-driving vehicles that are necessary to master.
Ryan Chin, chief executive of the Cambridge-based Optimus Ride, which is looking to develop a ride-sharing company that features a fleet of self-driving vehicles.
“We have complicated roads, we have complicated weather,” said Ryan Chin, chief executive of Cambridge-based Optimus Ride. “If we can drive an autonomous vehicle that can drive in Boston it can drive anywhere.”
Still, that doesn’t mean untested cars will be on the roads.
The state has discussed turning Devens — which has a number of unused former military streets and neighborhoods — into a central testing facility.
©2016 the Boston Herald. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
