A Google Car Can Qualify As A Legal Driver

The U.S. highway safety agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, has determined that a computer system can qualify as the legal driver of a car, Reuters reports. The opinion is expressed in a letter, dated 4 February, from NHTSA Chief Counsel Paul A. Hemmersbaugh to Chris Urmson, head of Google's self-driving car project. The letter, which appears on NHTSA's Web site, comes in response to Urmson's request three months earlier that the government allow for the possibility of a car that truly drives itself. "As a foundational starting point for the interpretations below, NHTSA will interpret'driver' in the context of Google's described motor vehicle design as referring to the SDS [self-driving system], and not to any of the vehicle occupants," Hemmersbaugh writes. "We agree with Google its [self-driving vehicle] will not have a'driver' in the traditional sense that vehicles have had drivers during the last more than 100 years."