Should self-driving cars someday fulfill the ambition of their creators and transform the transportation landscape as we know it, future industry leaders may look back on Tuesday, December 13, 2016, as the day reality started catching up with the hype.
In Silicon Valley, the bastion of autonomous technology, Google announced it was spinning its self-driving-car project into its own independent company called Waymo, a development that signals commercialization in the public realm is coming soon.
One hour earlier, in Washington, D.C., federal Department of Transportation (DOT) officials unveiled a long-awaited notice of proposed rulemaking. If a final rule reaches fruition, it will mandate that all new vehicles contain equipment that permits vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications. Regulators say this connected-car technology could one day prevent thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of crashes every year by offering drivers real-time alerts of imminent dangers ahead. Coupled with autonomous technology, it may have further lifesaving effects. Although Google didn?t use V2V communications for a landmark driverless journey around Austin, Texas, in a car that didn?t contain steering wheels or brake pedals, many experts believe that these communications will enhance, and perhaps even be necessary, for operations at the most advanced levels of autonomous driving.

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?There?s not a safety standard in clear language proposed here. There are concepts that might be turned into ...