Google driverless car initiative forces Germans car makers to follow the lead

Google driverless car is about to go global in couple of years and automakers have their limitations about the car. The German Transport Minister has set legal guidelines for the users of driverless cars on the autobahns of Germany.

Alexander Dobrindt, is Federal Minister of Transport and Digital Infrastructure for Germany and he said driverless cars would possibly be on German roads in next couple of years, but it is very important to have some rules before they become future of the motoring.

The Transport Minister has formed a committee comprising of experts from the auto industry, research institutes and government to draw up legal guidelines for autonomous cars. These guidelines would make it tolerable and permissible. He has asked the committee to prepare the draft key findings and major points before the Frankfurt car fair, coming in September.

Present traffic rules have nothing in them about driverless cars and even do not allow autonomous or robot cars on German roads, because the law says, there should be a human being always available for controlling the vehicle. According to the Vienna Convention, a human being must be in control of the vehicle.

There is a big concern about malfunctioning of computer control systems because machines are always subjected to malfunctions. Who will be responsible for computer malfunction on the road as it can cause very horrific accidents? What will be the insurance procedure for these cars?? How driving licences should be regulated for these autonomous machines? These kinds of questions still need to be clarified.

German car industry is also working on autonomous cars for years and they are very confident that the autonomous cars will be commercially available by 2020. However, the German industry has become very nervous about competing with the most advanced technology from Google.