Fatal Crash May Slow Advance of Self-Driving Cars

Advocates of driverless cars worry that the fatal crash of a Tesla Motors Inc. vehicle in self-driving mode will provoke additional regulatory oversight and slow deployment on U.S. roads of the rapidly advancing technology. The National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration aims this month to release a framework for regulating self-driving cars, which could include requiring auto makers to win approval for their technologies before releasing them. That sort of approval process wasn't applied to Tesla's Autopilot system to enable hands-free driving on highways, which the electric-car maker made available on Tesla vehicles via a software update in October. Regulators said Thursday that an Ohio man was using Autopilot when his Tesla Model S crashed into a 18-wheel truck in Florida on May 7, killing him. "There will be repercussions" in regulations, said Dean Pomerleau, a Carnegie Mellon University professor who has worked on driverless cars for 25 years and led several NHTSA research programs.