Self-Driving Car Rules Will Lag Tech, Think Tanks Predict

Like an impatient teenager, self-driving car technology will be ready to hit the road well before authorities are ready to license it, predict a pair of studies released last week. That may not be such a bad thing, write researchers at RAND, a think tank in Santa Monica, Calif. Waiting until the technology’s potential and impacts are more clear could help policymakers establish better rules for driverless roads, they write.
The other study, from business analysts IHS, echoes industry predictions that the first driver-supervised self-driving cars will sell by around 2020 and follows with other optimistic estimates including a prediction that