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Australia proposes exempting self-driving cars from DUI laws

The Australian National Transport Commission (NTC) has recommended that people operating fully self-driving vehicles should not be subject to laws making it illegal to drive while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The report is in response to NTC’s 2016 directive to change transportations laws, allowing Australians the benefits of using self-driving cars.

The report said that requiring occupants of self-driving cars, who were not driving the vehicles, to comply with driving under the influence (DUI) laws would be a barrier to receiving the full benefits of the technology. The report argues that operators of fully self-driving cars are not in control of the vehicles and should not be classified as drivers for DUI-enforcement purposes. The report stipulated that the proposed regulation would only apply to operators of self-driving vehicles where there was no possibility of an operator taking control of the car.

While no fully self-driving cars are currently commercially available, the report noted that road tests of autonomous cars were currently underway in Australia, and the NTC estimated that commercial availability could come as early as 2020.

Several automobile manufacturers and ride-sharing companies are working to perfect and deploy self-driving cars as fast as possible, but the technology needs further work before they become widely available. According to technology website Recode, Uber currently has 43 active self-driving vehicles. In March, those vehicles drove a total of 32, 756 km autonomously. But, operators had to take control of the cars every 1.3 km.

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