Nevada Ready For Self-Driving Cars. Well, Not Quite

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Last year, Nevada was the first state to legalize driverless cars – in a way. The law stipulated that Nevada’s Department of Transportation “shall adopt regulations authorizing the operation of autonomous vehicles on highways within the State of Nevada.” Probably hoping that this would take a while. The Department worked overtime and finished the regulations in eight months. The Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles announces:

“In a step that puts Nevada first in the nation while paving the way for unique economic opportunity, the Legislative Commission today approved regulations allowing for the operation of self-driving vehicles on the state’s roadways.

It still is a while away until cars will roam Nevada with nobody on the wheel. The department is currently developing licensing procedures for companies that want to test their self-driving vehicles in Nevada. Then, the cars must be tested and approved. Only then, they may drive around on their own.

One thing the DMV knows for sure: The color of the license plate of those autonomous vehicles. While the cars are tested, the plate will be red. Once approved, the plate will be green. General Motors does not think that we will see many green license plates before 2020.


Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Ixim Ixim on Feb 19, 2012

    The present system is pretty good, BUT, thanks to the vagaries of road conditions, etc.; compounded by unavoidable human error, accidents happen. Any automated system, no matter its level of "perfection" will have accidents. The technology WILL be developed, demonstrated, and implemented SOMEWHERE for reasons of - choose as many as you like: safety, fuel savings; time savings; crime prevention/solving through cyber-surveillkance, etc. Those of us who enjoy operating our own motor vehicles will have some adapting to do.

    • Robert.Walter Robert.Walter on Feb 19, 2012

      You will drive a vehicle that will broadcast to the others that it is under the control of carbon-based engram-equipped multitronic circuits. If an accident happens, your atty will state that "the autocar simply got in the way."

  • Landcrusher Landcrusher on Feb 19, 2012

    This will never happen because it will destroy the airlines and gut the FAA. They will use all their power to stop it while the lawyers hold on to their ability to leech off of every mistake. The only hope is an alliance between the UAW and AARP only the AARP doesn't listen to its members' wishes and the UAW guys are too backwards to see that this is one fight that GM and Ford can actually win.

    • Fisher72 Fisher72 on Feb 19, 2012

      Also what would the police departments do for revenue if people stopped getting tickets? Your car would already know the traffic/weather delays to get to work and text/alert you that you need to leave for work at time X:XX, and keep bothering you like a count down.

  • Multicam Multicam on Feb 19, 2012

    Am I the only person who thought he said "Asian people" at 0:30? Hahaha.

  • Pch101 Pch101 on Feb 19, 2012

    For those who get hit by RoboCars, it will make perfect sense for the victims to sue the RoboCar software company. It might even behoove the owner of the RoboCar to sue the "driver", since it wasn't him. ("Hey, I was just minding my own business, taking a nap in the back seat when my...er, THAT car hit someone!") I look forward to this. With an automated car, there will always be somebody to sue. Uninsured motorists will be a thing of a past; we can all just file a claim against Google, instead.

    • Robert.Walter Robert.Walter on Feb 20, 2012

      Oogle will just retaliate by releasing the lurid details of the plaintiff's search history; the data collection for this begins March 1st. ;) but maybe not!

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