"Vogt couldn’t change lanes because of California state law around autonomous vehicles"
This statement is complete bullshit. The California DMV doesn't have any clear details defining operations of vehicles at this point in time. They only have rules about what is required to test on public roads. This includes 5 million dollar bond, applying for permit, etc...[1]
This statement alone (if correct from the reporter) makes me nervous about the amount of spin going on.
To clarify, the California DMV carefully defines an "Autonomous vehicle" but has carve outs for collision avoidance systems [1]. While adaptive cruise control and lane keep assist are mentioned explicitly as collision avoidance systems, automatic lane changing is not. So we weren't comfortable adding that feature until the DMV published their regulations for the operation of Autonomous Vehicles (which still hasn't happened) and we met those requirements.
This statement is complete bullshit. The California DMV doesn't have any clear details defining operations of vehicles at this point in time. They only have rules about what is required to test on public roads. This includes 5 million dollar bond, applying for permit, etc...[1]
This statement alone (if correct from the reporter) makes me nervous about the amount of spin going on.
[1] : http://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/wcm/connect/d48f347b-8815-458e-...