With Autonomous Cars, A World Without Red Lights?

Marc Scribner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute said misguided government regulation may delay development of autonomous vehicles.

Regulators may be well-intentioned, but they’re slow, he said. Autonomous vehicle technology, on the other hand, “is moving pretty quickly. We should let the innovators innovate and keep the regulators as far away from these things as possible.”

Scribner also argued that since “most crashes have always been and continue to be caused by driver behavior,” self-driving cars will bring greater safety.

“If these [automated] vehicles are in fact safer, and I think we all think they will be, then any policy that results in unnecessary cost and delay” in bringing autonomous vehicles to market “will result in additional property damage, injuries, and deaths. Death by regulation is really something to be concerned about.”