Google Warns Against Driverless Car Regulations

Company tells California Department of Motor Vehicles to not impose safety restrictions, argues for its own safeguards.

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Google wants California to put the brakes on state regulations for driverless cars.

Representatives of the tech company told the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) that the technology behind autonomous vehicles is too complex for government officials to understand completely, and therefore too hard to regulate, according to the Sacramento Business Journal.

Google instead argued that state regulators should view the company’s own safety process to lessen concerns over the technology. Bryan Salesky, program manager for Google’s self-driving cars unit, told attendees at a DMV-hosted workshop held Jan. 27 that safety is a distinct part of the creation process of autonomous vehicles and is “organic” to what the company does.

The workshop is one of two hearings the DMV is conducting to gather data on self-driving car safety. The intent is to establish regulations that manufacturers must follow before selling any autonomous vehicle to the public. The DMV previously released regulations on the testing of driverless cars last year.

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Brian Heaton was a writer for Government Technology and Emergency Management magazines from 2011 to mid-2015.