John Markoff, veteran technology reporter at The New York Times, has a fascinating story in the paper today about self-driving cars, which have been proven workable in road tests but could get held back from the market by a host of what would seem to be lesser issues.
What happens if a police officer wants to pull one of these vehicles over? When it stops at a four-way intersection, would it be too polite to take its turn ahead of aggressive human drivers (or equally polite robots)? What sort of insurance would it need?
By stepping away from his core area, how technology works and its market opportunity, Markoff's stretch into reporting on law and regulation makes a fascinating statement about what it takes to bring a truly novel product to market in today's America. When cars first hit the road, there were no rules - those came later. Driverless cars may find themselves matching the 12 tasks of Hercules to prove themselves safe.
Markoff does a good job of balancing sources who speak for regualtors who just don't like the idea of 2-ton cars rolling down the road without drivers and technology-driven leaders at Google who believe that programming is everything.
It makes for a fascinating read and a look into the not-too-distant future, a great form of business jouranlism we could stand to see more often.
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