Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to reduce human decision-making while driving can lead to a dramatic reduction in road accidents. This was the emphasis given by former US transportation secretary Anthony Foxx, during his keynote speech at the inaugural International Road Federation (IRF) Congress- Middle East and North Africa, hosted by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) in Dubai on Sunday. "This is the first generation that I believe will see a dramatic decrease in road fatalities as a result of technology," Foxx noted. According to the IRF, road accidents are the 10th largest cause of mortality worldwide while it is the second major cause of death after cardiovascular diseases in the UAE, according to Road SafetyUAE. Majority of traffic incidents worldwide are both predictable and preventable, according to a UN General Secretariat report last year.

The US auto safety regulator has cleared Tesla's Model S of defects that could have led to the death of a man who collided with a truck while using the car's Autopilot system. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found no cause to order a recall of the vehicles, which have advanced driver aids capable of maintaining speed and distance to other cars on the road, lane position and overtaking. It placed responsibility for the accident primarily on the driver, former Navy Seal Joshua Brown. A Tesla spokesperson said: "The safety of our customers comes first, and we appreciate the thoroughness of NHTSA's report and its conclusion." Tesla chief executive Elon Musk took to Twitter to praise NHTSA's decision, highlighting the positives of its report.

So far, testing autonomous vehicles on city streets has had mixed results. Uber's plan did not go over well in the company's hometown of San Francisco, but cities like Phoenix and Boston have been a little more receptive to the idea. Now, to solve some of those bureaucratic headaches and foster a little more collaboration at the same time, the US Department of Transportation has laid out 10 autonomous vehicle proving grounds where research teams, automakers and startups can try out their technology before it hits the streets. According to US DOT Secretary Anthony Foxx, the proving grounds will provide more than just the physical roads to drive on -- they'll also form a community where new findings can be shared between the participants. "The designated proving grounds will collectively form a Community of Practice around safe testing and deployment," Foxx said in a statement.

It is perhaps a stretch to call Elaine Chao, President-Elect Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of transportation, "hip with it." The Kentucky resident today sat for her fourth Senate confirmation hearing, following stints at the Transportation and Labor departments starting in the mid-80s. Chao, who happens to be married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, is the ur-Washington bureaucrat, a woman described by those on both sides of the aisle as a longtime, competent doer. Not the sort of hoodie-wearing early adopter to embrace world-shaking visions of the future. And yet, her performance this morning left autonomous vehicle advocates--who fancy themselves as sitting on the bleeding-edge--quietly cheering.

Three years after CEO Jeff Bezos secured a massive dose of publicity with the announcement that Amazon was working on drone deliveries, that vision is a reality. First-ever #AmazonPrimeAir customer delivery is in the books. Check out the video: https://t.co/Xl8HiQMA1S Workers at a British fulfillment center are stuffing shoebox-sized packages--in one case with a Fire TV and some popcorn--and loading them into the belly of electric, quadcopter drones, which set off to the customer. The company claims the drones, guided by GPS and flying below 400 feet, can make deliveries within 30 minutes, from click to plop.

California transportation authorities made two major changes in their policy on autonomous vehicles. The state, which is already relatively progressive with its laws for self-driving automobiles, continues to be a leader in adopting policies that give companies testing driverless cars more latitude. The first change, a new bill signed into law on Sept. 29, gives the Contra Costa Transportation Authority permission to test a pilot project on public roads without having a driver behind the wheel. Prior to this, the state only allowed public road testing if a human driver was in the driver's seat and "capable of taking immediate manual control of the vehicle in the event of an autonomous technology failure or other emergency." The bill requires the autonomous vehicles to be insured for 5 million, for the self-driving automobiles to not exceed 35 miles per hour on the road, and for testing data to be shared with the government and while placing geographic restrictions.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said Sunday that his counterparts in the Group of Seven developed nations welcomed U.S. guidelines on regulating self-driving cars and have agreed to work together on creating such standards to maintain safety. "There was actually a very enthusiastic reception to the policy," he said. "We did a good job of inventorying what each country is doing and laying out areas that we want to explore further." Such issues include cybersecurity, ethics and privacy, wireless spectrum questions and many other issues, he said, while noting that reaching a resolution might take years, meaning the technology will be moving faster. Foxx called the U.S. guidelines released earlier this month the most comprehensive on autonomous vehicles, coming out ahead of the rest of the world.

Saying they were doing something no other government has done, Obama administration officials rolled out a plan Tuesday they say will enable automakers to get self-driving cars onto the road without compromising safety. In drawing up 112 pages of guidelines, the government tried to be vague enough to allow innovation while at the same time making sure that car makers, tech companies and ride-hailing firms put safety first as the cars are developed. Only time will tell whether the mission was accomplished, but the document generally was praised by businesses and analysts as good guidance in a field that's evolving faster than anyone imagined just a few years ago. "How do you regulate a complex software system?" asked Timothy Carone, a Notre Dame University professor who has written about the future of automation. "They want to allow innovation, but they want to be very proscriptive in managing the risk side of this. In my mind, they're trying to manage the unknown."

With driverless cars on the horizon, the government is adding its two cents on the matter. On Tuesday, the U.S. Transportation Department (DOT) released a four-part policy outlining safety measures to ensure all vehicles are ready to be on the road. The four sections of the policy--created in consultation with experts in the field, state governments, safety advocates and more--include a 15 point safety assessment, a Model State policy, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) current regulatory tools and modern regulatory tools. According to the DOT, the goal of the policy is to provide car makers with a framework. "Automated vehicles have the potential to save thousands of lives, driving the single biggest leap in road safety that our country has ever taken," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx in a statement.

Obama administration officials are previewing long-awaited guidance that attempts to bring self-driving cars to the nation's roadways safely -- without creating so many roadblocks that the technology can't make it to market quickly. Traditional automakers and tech companies have been testing self-driving prototypes on public roads for several years, with a human in the driver's seat just in case. The results suggest that what once seemed like a technology perpetually over the horizon appears to be fast approaching, especially with car companies announcing a string of investments and acquisitions in recent months. Federal officials have been struggling with how to capitalize on the technology's promised safety benefits -- the cars can react faster than people, but don't drink or get distracted -- while making sure they are ready for widespread use. The new guidance represents their current thinking, which they hope will bring some order to what has been a chaotic rollout so far.