Oregon is not going along with neighboring states California and Nevada in supporting driverless cars.
House Bill 2428 sought to establish a process for allow the operation of autonomous vehicles in Oregon but it died in committee.
Opposition and concern was voiced over having a robotic vehicle controlling what happens on the road. One legislator threw a curveball what if terrorists used a bomb car driven by a drone to pull off the next Boston Marathon-type attack?
Another wedge that split up support for the bill was that the Oregon Department of Transportation put out an alternative why not test out a partially automated connected car, and use that test data to go forward later with a driverless car test program?
Debate in the state of Oregon was going on around the same time as panelists were exploring the status of driverless cars at the 2013 Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress in Detroit.
Christian Schumacher of automotive supplier Continental talked about a driverless car his company is testing. He thinks partially automated cars will on roads in significant numbers by 2016, more highly automated versions by 2020, and driverless by 2025. His peers agreed on the 2025 forecast for driverless cars.
Click here to dig into some of the key issues that driverless car technology must hurdle if its going to be adopted around the country. Oregon overall is known for being a libertarian state the state legislature may have been expressing the get big brother off my back sensibility. But Oregon is not the only state where youll hear those concerns expressed.
The Article Fear of Robo-Cars Stalls Support for Driverless Cars in Oregon appeared first on Automotive Digest.