Look out for driverless cars on the road

California Gov. Edmund G Brown Jr., front left, rides in a driverless car to a bill signing at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

The governor of California just signed a bill paving the way for driverless cars to hit the highways in California. Some say these driverless cars will make the road safer, but The Ron & Don Show staff is split on whether we should put up a roadblock on these autonomous cars.

“This story freaks me out,” says Rachel Belle.

She says the concept of self-driving cars is hard for her to grasp, and she’s not the only one that thinks things are moving too fast.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers expressed concern that California is moving too quickly to embrace self-driving cars and needs to first sort out liability issues.

Host Don O’Neill says he’s worried about the dangers for others on the road, including pedestrians.

“Seems like a lot of people are going to die, especially pedestrians and people on bicycles. How is the car not going to hit a bicycle or a pedestrian?”

Google has reportedly logged more than 300,000 miles of self-driving on the company’s fleet of a dozen computer-controlled vehicles without any accidents.

If the car driver is so great, Don wonders just how responsible the human in the car has to be, asking Rachel if people are allowed to take a nap or if they can drink and let the car drive.

Rachel explains the technology and the regulations are in the early stages.

The regulations in California would allow vehicles to operate autonomously, but a licensed driver would still need to sit behind the wheel to serve as a backup operator in case of emergency. A human driver can override the autopilot function and take control of the vehicle at any time.

Google Inc. has been developing autonomous car technology for years and has been lobbying for the regulations.

In February, Nevada became the first U.S. state to approve regulations spelling out requirements for companies to test driverless cars on that state’s roads.

Carmakers such as Audi AG, BMW AG, Ford Motor Co. and Volvo have also been working on autonomous car technology.

With smartphone-wielding drivers more distracted than ever, backers say robotic vehicles have the potential to significantly reduce collisions and traffic fatalities, noting that nearly all car accidents are a result of human error.

Host Ron Upshaw is willing to bet on the new technology saying, “In all fairness, this will probably be the best driver on a California freeway.”

By JAMIE GRISWOLD, MyNorthwest.com Editor
The Associated Press contributed to this report.