The Trump administration has taken a hands-off approach to regulating self-driving cars, but on Friday, federal regulators decided that one self-driving car project had gone too far. In a sharply worded statement, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it has ordered the French transportation company Transdev to stop transporting schoolchildren in a self-driving vehicle in Florida. Transdev's pilot project in Babcock Ranch, a planned community, was quite modest. On Fridays, Transdev's electric shuttle would take a group of elementary-aged children to school, then take them home later in the day. The vehicle had a safety driver on board.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it had ordered Transdev North America to immediately stop transporting school children in Florida in a driverless shuttle as the testing could be putting them at'inappropriate' risk. The auto safety agency known as NHTSA said in an order issued late on Friday that Transdev's use of its EZ10 Generation II driverless shuttle in the Babcock Ranch community in southwest Florida was'unlawful and in violation of the company s temporary importation authorization.' 'Innovation must not come at the risk of public safety,' said Deputy NHTSA Administrator Heidi King in a statement. The NHTSA said it had ordered Transdev North America to immediately stop transporting school children in Florida in a driverless shuttle as the testing could be putting them at'inappropriate' risk. The EZ10 minibuses can carry up to six seated passengers and six standing. Like a metro, the shuttle buses run back and forth in a single traffic lane.

Sorry kids, neither you nor robots can be trusted. The US Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has told Transdev North America to stop hauling children around in its EZ10 Generation II autonomous shuttles in Babcock Ranch -- a community in Southwest Florida. It seems that the NHTSA has some safety concerns. "Using a non-compliant test vehicle to transport children is irresponsible, inappropriate, and in direct violation of the terms of Transdev's approved test project," NHTSA Deputy Administrator Heidi King said in a press release. Earlier this March, NHTSA approved Transdev to test and demonstrate its autonomous shuttles.

Computers may be poised to take control of driving in the future, but humans will be backing them for some time yet. Tech giants Waymo and Uber Technologies Inc., auto makers General Motors Co. GM -0.85% and Nissan Motor Co. NSANY -1.16%, and upstarts like Phantom Auto are all developing ways for people to remotely assist their autonomous vehicles during complicated driving situations. "You're going to want as many different backup systems as possible, and human beings performing remote operations is one of those," said Anthony Foxx, former U.S. Transportation Secretary and adviser to venture-capital firm Autotech Ventures. Having human backup will likely help alleviate concerns that regulators and insurance companies have about the new technology, he added. Driverless cars, using sensors, cameras and digital maps, tend to navigate the world based on road markings and rules of the road.

Autonomous vehicles with no human backup will be put to the test on publicly traveled French roads as early as next year in what may be the first attempt at unassisted autonomous piloting. Automotive electronics and parts maker Delphi and French transport company Transdev plan to use autonomous taxis and a shuttle van to carry passengers on roadways in France. The companies on Wednesday said they plan to combine Delphi's self-driving technology with Transdev's knowledge of mobility operations. This is where the issue often occurs, as the rules aren't clear as to who is responsible if a crash occurs. Despite this, insurers such as RSA have accepted applications from some driverless car companies.

France could be the first country to have fully autonomous cars on the road next year. The Associated Press reported that French companies Delphi and Transdev will partner to create taxi and shuttle services that transport passengers without a driver. The testing will start with on-demand driverless vehicles in Normandy and a van service that will shuttle passengers between a train station and the campus of the University of Paris Saclay. The route between the campus and train station is aimed at addressing a "first mile-last mile" gap in public transportation, getting people from their final destinations and start points to public transit. The services will begin with humans on board to give instruction before the planned fully autonomous phase in 2018.

French automaker Renault SA will supply the venture with Zoe electric minicars, according to Yann Leriche, Transdev's chief performance officer. The test phase will start later this year with two Zoe minicars in Rouen in Normandy and a shuttle bus in the Paris suburb of Saclay, Leriche told the media briefing. Initially, the vehicles will have "safety" drivers on board, but the plan is to move quickly next year to tests of fully driverless vehicles that are remotely controlled and monitored by human operators, he added. Delphi has been building its expertise and capability in self-driving vehicles through partnerships, investments and acquisitions.

French people love to drive, but with private radar companies set to give out way more speeding tickets, they may be willing to let machines take the wheel. Luckily, the Renault-Nissan Alliance has teamed with a company called Transdev to develop a fleet of self-driving vehicles "for future public and on-demand transportation," it said in a press release. The project will kick off with autonomous field testing of Europe's most popular EV, the 250-mile-range Renault Zoe. Transdev, which will supply the self-driving and logistics tech, recently launched what it claims is the "world's first" fully autonomous fleet to run on an industrial site. Its systems are used on the "Navya Arma" vehicles, shuttling employees around EDF nuclear power stations every five minutes.