Road for Driverless Cars Pockmarked With Regulatory Pitfalls

Companies from the Motor City to Silicon Valley welcomed the Obama administration's new self-driving car policy this week, but there is still a long road ahead full of obstacles before robots entirely replace humans as motorists. For auto makers and technology firms, the guidelines detailed Tuesday represent an early victory that steer clear of regulations with legal force and pressure states to avoid developing conflicting rules that could frustrate rollout efforts. But the government's unwillingness for now to aggressively draft firm, prescriptive rules shows how unprepared some regulators, urban planners and insurers are for an autonomous overhaul. Questions remain about whether the federal government will ultimately need to unwind decades of safety regulations to accommodate for vehicles that don't have steering wheels, brake pedals and other features designed for human interaction. Assuming manufacturers can overcome all the technical challenges of building an autonomous car, the burgeoning field would change the fabric of everyday life in a way that hasn't occurred since automobiles replaced horse carriages.