Experts tell US agency to slow down on self-driving cars

Engineers, safety advocates and automakers have a safety message for federal regulators eager to get self-driving cars on the road: slow down. Self-driving cars may pave the way for the future, but industry officials cautioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration during a meeting on Friday, saying the vehicles aren't up to the demands of real-world driving yet. The federal agency had previously announced it would begin writing guidelines for deploying the automated vehicles in January with the promise that they would be ready by July. Instead of issuing more strictly defined regulations, which can take up to eight years, the agency is writing guidelines instead, arguing that they needed to catch up with cars on the road that already have self-driving features included. FILE - In this May 13, 2014 file photo, a Google self-driving car goes on a test drive near the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. Self-driving cars are more likely to be a threat than a boon to public safety because of unresolved technical issues, engineers and safety advocates told the government Friday, countering a push by innovators for expedited government approval.