Self Drive Bill clears US House of Representatives

Yesterday, the US House of Representatives passed an ambitious bill on autonomous vehicles. The bill reached unanimous support across the full political spectrum represented in Washington D.C. The so-called Self-Drive Act allows the federal government to exempt manufacturers from safety standards. Since these standards require a human sitting behind the wheel, exemptions can allow more real-life testing of automated cars. Over the next four years, the act allows the government to phase in 100.000 cars to American roads. The bill has been widely supported by a broad alliance of car manufacturers, supppliers and Silicon-Valley-based tech companies involved in autonomous driving. The American legislation takes a different approach than the German bill, which was passed as first self-driving law earlier this year.