NYT asks what happens when self-driving cars break the law

Here's the line to remember: "As robots become mainstream, lawmakers will have to grapple with how to govern machines and hold software accountable." That comes from a New York Times piece on what kind of legislation will be needed to deal with the inevitable accidents that autonomous vehicles will get into. The lawyers, naturally, will go after everyone with money, but who do the authorities charge when a self-driving car parks itself in a no-parking zone, and who will the jury hold responsible when it rolls the wrong way down a one-way street and, heaven forbid, injures or kills someone?

The academic world has already begun devoting white papers and test tracks to the subject, but it will be up to our elected leaders to - hopefully - start filling in some legally binding answers before the hard questions get asked in court. The earliest projections figure we have six years until autonomous cars drive themselves onto dealership lots, but once they show up, healthy public trust could make them quite popular. Head over to the NYT to read the piece and start thinking about who'll have to clean up the mess when you hear the phrase, "You have 20 seconds to comply..."
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White House urges Congress to shore up depleted Highway Trust Fund

The United States Highway Trust Fund is getting closer to running out, and the federal government is scrambling to find a way to keep it in the black. The fund pays for a significant portion of the upkeep for the country's interstates, bridge repairs and some public transportation projects. It's currently backed under a two-year law that expires in September, but Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx claims the actual money in the account will be gone by the end of August. Without new financing, the depletion stands to affect 112,000 ongoing projects and about 700,000 jobs, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The Obama administration and Foxx have already presented a four-year funding bill that would end a tax break for businesses and give states the ability to charge tolls on interstates to raise money for upkeep. But the President's plan is raising controversy from Republican legislators who don't want to change taxes for businesses, especially in an election year. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Foxx still hopes to close a loophole in companies' deferring taxes on overseas earnings that could raise $150 billion.

The current funding is provided by an 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal tax on gasoline. However, the latter hasn't been raised since the '90s. With more efficient cars and no adjustment, the tax just isn't providing enough money to keep up with needed repairs. The Highway Trust Fund provides about a quarter of the annual public spending on roadway projects, according to the WSJ.

There is an alternative bipartisan bill in the Senate, notes Businessweek. The six-year plan would continue funding at $105 billion a year (plus inflation) but at the moment, it doesn't say where that money will actually come from. That part is being left for later.

The legislative and executive branches still have a few weeks to hammer out a deal over how to pay for America's highway upkeep. While that happens, the future of our nation's roads appears to hang in the balance.
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Roger Rodas' widow suing Porsche over Carrera GT crash

Investigations undertaken by local law enforcement may have vindicated Porsche from any wrongdoing in the crash that killed actor Paul Walker and racing driver Roger Rodas last year, but the latter's widow is apparently not convinced. According to emerging reports, Kristine Rodas has filed a lawsuit seeking unspecified damages from Porsche Cars North America.

In her suit filed with the Los Angeles Superior Court, Rodas' attorney Mark Geragos reportedly disputes the findings of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which asserted that the vehicle was traveling at an unsafe speed of 90 miles per hour on city streets, identifying the speed as the cause of the accident. Instead the lawsuit claims that the vehicle was only going 55 mph and that the cause of the crash was improper equipment - namely a faulty right rear suspension and the lack of a crash cage and proper fuel tank.

"The Carrera GT was unsafe for its intended use by reason of defects in its manufacture, design, testing, component and constituents, so that it would not safely serve its purpose," according to the specifics of the suit obtained by the Los Angeles Times. When reached for comment, Porsche Cars North America spokesman Nick Twork told Autoblog:

We are very sorry for the Rodas and Walker family's loss. The crash was the subject of a detailed investigation by the proper authorities (L.A. County Sheriff and California Highway Patrol), and their investigation disproves the allegations in the lawsuit. The investigation found that driving at a high speed in a negligent manner caused the crash and concluded that there was no mechanical defect.

The Carrera GT is known as a difficult car to drive. As the LA Times report points out, Jay Leno spun one at Talladega in 2005, and the following year, Porsche paid part of a multi-million-dollar settlement after two were killed on a track when their Carrera GT struck a slower-moving Ferrari. The Rodas lawsuit could very well point to that previous suit from San Diego Superior Court. Whether the court in LA will hand down a similar ruling remains to be seen.

 

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Chinese Tesla Model S buyers to get free license plate... a $15k value

Tesla buyers in in Shanghai, China, are getting even more of an incentive to choose its electric sedans. Each purchase of a Model S in the city will come with a free license plate.

That might not sound very important, but Shanghai operates under a government-organized auction system to distribute plates. Last year, they were selling for as much as $15,000, according to Car News China. The measure is a way to control the number of cars on the road, which contribute to the city's bad traffic and poor air quality.

Electric cars are exempt from the auctions and get a free license plate. However, that rule only covers Chinese-made electric cars. Obviously, Tesla doesn't build cars there (at least for now). But the Shanghai government will exempt 3,000 foreign electric cars per automaker to receive free plates, according to CNC. After they are gone, the company would have to go back and ask for more.

Tesla confirmed the plan to Autoblog and pointed out there was a small blurb about it in the automaker's Q1 2014 financial release: "Model S drivers in the city will be entitled to free license plates, thereby avoiding the usual public auction price of $10,000 to $15,000 per plate." It certainly seems like a great enticement to grab early buyers for the Model S there.
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EPA challenged by third-party fuel economy test

Fuel economy figures from the Environmental Protection Agency have been criticized in recent years for being, in some cases, wildly inaccurate, and after enduring public controversies about some automakers' mile-per-gallon claims. In 2012, Hyundai and Kia admitted that some of their economy numbers were exaggerated, and Ford had to re-rate the C-Max because its original stats were too high. An alternative has arrived in the form of third-party testing company Emissions Analytics, which has begun performing real-world evaluations on vehicles using a system called Real MPG, and it has partnered with Intellichoice and Motor Trend to publish the results.

The company equips vehicles with 170-pounds of portable testing equipment and drives them in real-world conditions around an 88-mile route in Southern California. According to Intellichoice, the tests take about 140 minutes and include residential, city and highway driving. In the city sections, average speeds are about 22.5 miles per hour, going all the way up to 65 mph on the highway.

So far, about 100 vehicles from the 2013 and 2014 model years have been tested, but the differences have been intriguing. According to a report in UCR Today, on average the overall difference between its results and those of the EPA is only about one percent, but some vehicles have shown variations of as much as 20-percent higher or lower than EPA figures. For example, a 2013 Honda Fit with a manual transmission is an outlier in the group. It's rated 27 miles per gallon city and 33 mpg highway by the EPA, but in Emissions Analytics' test, it shows 30.7 mpg / 37.1 mpg. By way of contrast, a 2013 Honda Accord LX sedan managed just 19.8 in the city and 33.6 highway, compared to its EPA ratings of 27 / 36.

The similarity of many of these tests indicates that the EPA may be on the right track with its procedures. That said, we sure do appreciate the more real-world results obtained by Emissions Analystics. All of the Real MPG figures so far are available through Intellichoice.
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DOT, GM tests say single key is safe for recalled vehicles [w/video]

Throughout General Motors' ignition switch recall, the embattled, Detroit-based manufacturer has maintained the mantra that some 2.6 million recalled vehicles were safe to drive, provided certain precautions were taken.

Now, GM has issued a video that it says is proof of that point. Starring Vice President of Global Safety Jeff Boyer, the video shows a number of tests carried out on affected vehicles at GM's sprawling Milford, MI proving grounds. Engineers beat the heck out of the cars, just to prove that if there's nothing on the key - not even the key fob - that even some seriously brutal roads won't switch off the ignition switch.

The GM video comes on the same day that the US Department of Transportation declared that recalled GM vehicles did not need to be parked, following a petition from a pair of Democratic senators. According to Reuters, Senators Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut have argued that affected models shouldn't be driven until repairs can be completed.

Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx (shown above) dismissed the senators' arguments, though, writing that "such an action is not necessary at this time," and that the DOT's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration "is satisfied" with GM's temporary solution to the problem.

According to Reuters, Senators Markey and Blumenthal's concerns rested with the performance of the faulty ignition switches on rough roads. This video should, hopefully, allay those concerns.

Take a look below for the video from GM, and then head into Comments and tell us - is the blessing of GM and Secretary Foxx enough for you to get back behind the wheel of a recalled Chevrolet Cobalt or Saturn Ion? Let us know.
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Vladimir Putin's all-Russian limo revealed

It seems like you can't turn on the news this year without seeing the icy stare of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Whether he's opening the Olympics, sending troops to the Ukrainian border or just riding a horse while shirtless, he's seemingly everywhere. But behind the scenes, Putin has a big engineering project under development to create a new Russian-built and engineered official limousine for him and other top officials.

?Russian media recently snapped a few pictures of the design concept. As you can see, the current version has the country's seal emblazoned all over the vehicle. The front end has the monolithic flatness that is associated with super high-end luxury cars from Bentley and Rolls-Royce. It's not exactly a beauty, but you probably wouldn't want to criticize the look to Putin's face. He doesn't seem to a guy who takes critique well. Prototypes of Putin's new limo are scheduled for testing later this year, and final production is planned for 2016.

Known as Project Cortege, the plan has several Russian automakers working together to design several vehicles, but the limo is the first priority. According to Yahoo Autos, the venture might even be getting some engineering input from Porsche. Putin has sunk an estimated $150 million to $400 million in government money into the project. Eventually, he wants it to spawn other vehicles - like a van and SUV.

This is actually the second attempt at a new Russian limousine. Initially, ZiL, which made vehicles for top officials in during the Communist era, was spearheading it, and its limo even started production. However, Putin was reportedly not happy with the design. Now, it's back to the drawing board.
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