Requiring AI To Get A Driver’s License For Legally Driving A Self-Driving Car

Dr. Lance Eliot, AI Insider

Clever mock-up of a driver’s license for a self-driving car

Some teenagers complain about the gauntlet they need to confront when seeking to become a licensed driver.

I’d heard scuttlebutt among some teenagers at my children’s school that maybe there was a kind of conspiracy going on, in which adults were scheming to keep kids from driving cars. Rumors were that only a tiny percentage of teens that passed the licensing requirements would actually get anointed with a license.

I mulled over this theory and found out that by-and-large most teens do get their driver’s licenses (assuming they take things seriously), and in terms of the licensing roadblocks trying to keep them from doing so, well, it sure seems prudent to make sure that anyone licensed to drive is properly qualified and ready to do so. That’s not a conspiracy, that’s just plain sensible, I’d say.

When you consider the act of driving a car, it becomes apparent that there are two major elements of certification about the matter.

There is the aspect of ensuring that the human driver is ready, able, and formally certified to drive, which is achieved by the driver’s license or permit, plus there is the need to make sure that the car itself is also properly certified.

You likely don’t put much thought toward the fact that the car you are driving had to meet various federal regulatory guidelines in order to be on the public roadways. Per the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS), all cars on our roads are supposed to satisfy a rather hefty number of federally mandated requirements. The requirements encompass the full scope of car elements, including the car design, the construction of the car, the performance of the car, it’s safety, its durability, and so on.

In the United States, we have chosen to use the federal government to certify cars, and in contrast chosen to have the states themselves certify the human drivers of those cars.

Does it have to be that way?

Nope. It’s custom and tradition.

We could certainly decide to have the feds certify cars and certify drivers, doing both, if that’s what we wanted to do as a society. The…