The federal government just handed Google a huge win for ambitions to expand the reach of its autonomous vehicles. The U.S. government's traffic safety regulator has said it will consider Google's self-driving car a "driver" under federal law.

Google (aka Alphabet) has recently been rumored to be planning the launch of a subsidiary company to put its self-driving cars to work on the road in real-world situations, such as offering autonomous ride-sharing services in parts of California and Texas this year.

But the budding new technology has run into potential roadblocks. Late last year the California Department of Motor Vehicles drafted proposed regulations that would require a human in every driverless car, ready to take the wheel -- and legal responsibility -- just in case.

Feds: Google AI Legally a 'Driver'

Now, at least on the federal level, Google no longer has to worry about that hitch in its plans.

Last week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) informed Google of its decision to interpret regulations in a way that ascribes the legal label of "driver" to Google's self-driving car itself.

The NHTSA letter was posted on the regulator's website on Feb. 4 but went unreported until it was discovered this week by Reuters. The letter is a reply to Google's request for regulatory interpretation, sent under an industry/regulator collaboration recently launched by President Obama to spur updates to safety rules so they apply to autonomous vehicle technologies.

In Google's regulatory request, the company argued that its autonomous vehicles need no human driver, since its self-driving system constitutes an "artificial-intelligence (AI) driver." The NHTSA more or less agreed.

"NHTSA will interpret 'driver' in the context of Google's described motor vehicle design as referring to the [self-driving system], and not to any of the vehicle occupants," wrote the federal regulator, in what amounts to a refutation of California's proposed regulation.

"We agree with Google its [self-driving vehicle] will not have a 'driver' in the traditional sense that vehicles have had drivers during the last more than one hundred years," the NHSTA letter continued, crowning Google's autonomous vehicle AI with a regulatory title previously reserved only for humans of a certain age.

The letter goes on into a long, detailed assessment of the regulatory implications of its decision, providing a legal roadmap for companies like Google hoping to certify their autonomous vehicles and get them on the road.

"The trend toward computer-driven vehicles began with such features as antilock breaks, electronic stability control, and air bags, continuing today with automatic emergency braking, forward crash warning, and lane departure warnings, and continuing on toward vehicles with Google's [self-driving AI] and potentially beyond," wrote the NHTSA.

Google Pushed the Change, By Design

Unlike Tesla's "Autopilot" and that company's early test vehicles, Google's prototype for the autonomous car features no steering wheel, no gas pedal, and very little chance for human intervention besides an emergency stop button and a touchscreen to choose the car's destination.


While that design worried critics (including yours truly) as portending the end of human agency as drivers, it was a brilliant strategic move concerning regulations.

"No human occupant of the [self-driving vehicle] could meet the definition of 'driver,'" in the federal rulebook, wrote the NHTSA, "given Google's described motor vehicle design."

"Even if it were possible for a human occupant to determine the location of Google's steering control system, and sit immediately behind it, that human occupant would not be capable of actually driving the vehicle as described by Google," the NHTSA reasoned.

So the regulatory agency concluded, "If no human occupant of the vehicle can actually drive the vehicle, it is more reasonable to identify the 'driver' as whatever (as opposed to whoever) is doing the driving." And it's the AI that's doing the driving.

Thus, Google's self-driving AI, in a case of science fiction becoming reality, will legally be considered a driver under federal law.

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