Future and Cities and Cars 4

Just a quick blog to say that the regulatory environment for driverless cars is kicking into gear.  California has just come up with some conservative rules that require there be an operator in the car. On the other hand the Federal government in taking a pro-active approach for national standards that seem to promise fully autonomous vehicles.  Much of this depends on safety tests, but the underlying tension has to do with whether self-driving cars are an added feature to privately owned cars or will it signal a shift away from car ownership to a share model where you pay for usage.  As my previous posts suggest, I am more intrigued by the latter since it promises the potential transformation of urban spaces.  In any case, those that argue that driverless cars are coming sooner than you think, appear to be right.