Feds Give Green Light, Unroll Red Tape For Autonomous Vehicles

Federal transportation regulators have given the green light to autonomous vehicles, accelerating an already brisk race among technologists and car manufacturers to remove human operators from the driver's seat.

But that green light comes with new red tape.

After three years of restless anticipation since the first federal policy statement on driverless cars, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) said last month that manufacturers must submit to a 15-point federal vehicle safety assessment prior to an autonomous vehicle's commercial introduction, a sharp break from the agency's 50-year history of allowing the automotive industry to self-certify. (Read the entire report at the DOT's website.)