Recently Uber was forced to halt its self-driving program in California after the state’s DMV said that Uber did not possess the necessary permits. This led to Uber sending their cars to Arizona where they were welcomed with open arms. This is a good example of how there is yet to be some kind of standard implemented for self-driving vehicles.However come 2018, that is something China plans to change. In a report from Reuters, it seems that China is expected to revisit the standards for vehicle-to-vehicle communication used for self-driving cars, after which they plan on laying out a common national standard that carmakers can follow to ensure that their self-driving cars are compliant with the country’s standards and laws.
This will no doubt come in handy for situations like the one mentioned above, where what is considered illegal in one area is legal in the other. Granted the situation is a different, but if there were some kind of standards in place, carmakers would not run afoul of those laws which could hamper the progress of the development of the technology and products.
According to Society of Automotive Engineers of China’s chief Fu Yuwu who spoke to Reuters, “You can’t fundamentally use different channels (of communication) right? So in the end we need a unification process. This will be complicated and difficult but is in the best interests of the industry.”
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