Editorial Board
Set Self-Driving Cars Free
New federal safety guidelines for automated cars take the right approach: restrained, not restrictive.
They're coming.
Photographer: Angelo Merendino/AFPIn publishing new guidelines for automated vehicles this week, the U.S. Transportation Department tacitly acknowledged two important truths: This technology will probably be great. And no one knows what will happen.
The regulators took a restrained approach, offering a safety checklist for manufacturers and better guidance for state officials but stopping short of issuing restrictive new rules. That's prudent: As President Barack Obama put it, with mild understatement, "Government sometimes gets it wrong when it comes to rapidly changing technologies."