Proposed bill aims to regulate driverless vehicles in Maryland
BALTIMORE -- Maryland lawmakers have introduced a proposed bill that would establish regulations for self-driving vehicles.
Introduced on Jan. 16, HB439 would require a human to operate any vehicle over 10,000 pounds.
If the bill is passed, automated vehicle manufacturers must report any incidents involving collision, traffic citations, assault, or harassment. The reports would include details on conditions, vehicle performance, and any interactions leading to incidents.
Self-driving cars and safety concerns
While some vehicles already have self-driving features, safety concerns have prevented the technology from being deemed ready for widespread use.
In May 2024, automotive experts told CBS News MoneyWatch that self-driving cars still are not able to react in time to unexpected events presented on the road.
In April 2024, the driver of an electric Ford SUV crashed into a 56-year-old Texas man driving a Honda CR-V after using Ford's blue cruise driver-assist system, according to a preliminary report released Thursday by the National Transportation Safety Board.
There have been multiple investigations into self-driving software systems, including General Motors' Cruise, and Tesla's autopilot software.
In another incident in 2018, the backup Uber driver for a self-driving vehicle was charged with negligent homicide for streaming a television show and using her phone before Uber's Volvo XC90 struck and killed a pedestrian.
Economic concerns
The Maryland Teamsters union has spoken out in support of the bill, saying that it would protect jobs and help ensure safety.
"HB 439 is about saving good jobs from greedy tech executives who only care about profits," Sean Cedenio, President of Teamsters Joint Council 62 said. "If our elected officials in Maryland want the support of Teamsters and the voting public at large, they should stand with us as we fight to protect the middle class."
In 2023, protesters in California gathered to rally against self-driving cars after the public launch of Waymo, Google's robotaxi service, CBS News reported.
Concerns of autonomous vehicles impacting jobs stretch as far back as 2015 when Uber's former CEO Travis Kalanick said Uber would eventually replace all of its drivers with self-driving vehicles.
In September of last year, Uber announced a partnership with Google's Waymo service, along with plans to dispatch the company's robotaxis.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Sam Altman thinks AI will have 'novel insights' next year
In a new essay published Tuesday called "The Gentle Singularity," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shared his latest vision for how AI will change the human experience over the next 15 years. The essay is a classic example of Altman's futurism: hyping up the promise of AGI — and arguing that his company is quite close to the feat — while simultaneously downplaying its arrival. The OpenAI CEO frequently publishes essays of this nature, cleanly laying out a future in which AGI disrupts our modern conception of work, energy, and the social contract. But often, Altman's essays contain hints about what OpenAI is working on next. At one point in the essay, Altman claimed that next year, in 2026, the world will "likely see the arrival of [AI] systems that can figure out novel insights." While this is somewhat vague, OpenAI executives have recently indicated that the company is focused on getting AI models to come up with new, interesting ideas about the world. When announcing OpenAI's o3 and o4-mini AI reasoning models in April, co-founder and President Greg Brockman said these were the first models that scientists had used to generate new, helpful ideas. Altman's blog post suggests that in the coming year, OpenAI itself may ramp up its efforts to develop AI that can generate novel insights. OpenAI certainly wouldn't be the only company focused on this effort — several of OpenAI's competitors have shifted their focus to training AI models that can help scientists come up with new hypotheses, and thus, novel discoveries about the world. In May, Google released a paper on AlphaEvolve, an AI coding agent that the company claims to have generated novel approaches to complex math problems. Another startup backed by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, FutureHouse, claims its AI agent tool has been capable of making a genuine scientific discovery. In May, Anthropic launched a program to support scientific research. If successful, these companies could automate a key part of the scientific process, and potentially break into massive industries such as drug discovery, material science, and other fields with science at their core. This wouldn't be the first time Altman has tipped his hat about OpenAI's plans in a blog. In January, Altman wrote another blog post suggesting that 2025 would be the year of agents. His company then proceeded to drop its first three AI agents: Operator, Deep Research, and Codex. But getting AI systems to generate novel insights may be harder than making them agentic. The broader scientific community remains somewhat skeptical of AI's ability to generate genuinely original insights. Earlier this year, Hugging Face's Chief Science Officer Thomas Wolf wrote an essay arguing that modern AI systems cannot ask great questions, which is key to any great scientific breakthrough. Kenneth Stanley, a former OpenAI research lead, also previously told TechCrunch that today's AI models cannot generate novel hypotheses. Stanley is now building out a team at Lila Sciences, a startup that raised $200 million to create an AI-powered laboratory specifically focused on getting AI models to come up with better hypotheses. This is a difficult problem, according to Stanley, because it involves giving AI models a sense for what is creative and interesting. Whether OpenAI truly creates an AI model that is capable of producing novel insights remains to be seen. Still, Altman's essay may feature something familiar -- a preview of where OpenAI is likely headed next. This article originally appeared on TechCrunch at Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Sam Altman thinks AI will have 'novel insights' next year
In a new essay published Tuesday called "The Gentle Singularity," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shared his latest vision for how AI will change the human experience over the next 15 years. The essay is a classic example of Altman's futurism: hyping up the promise of AGI — and arguing that his company is quite close to the feat — while simultaneously downplaying its arrival. The OpenAI CEO frequently publishes essays of this nature, cleanly laying out a future in which AGI disrupts our modern conception of work, energy, and the social contract. But often, Altman's essays contain hints about what OpenAI is working on next. At one point in the essay, Altman claimed that next year, in 2026, the world will "likely see the arrival of [AI] systems that can figure out novel insights." While this is somewhat vague, OpenAI executives have recently indicated that the company is focused on getting AI models to come up with new, interesting ideas about the world. When announcing OpenAI's o3 and o4-mini AI reasoning models in April, co-founder and President Greg Brockman said these were the first models that scientists had used to generate new, helpful ideas. Altman's blog post suggests that in the coming year, OpenAI itself may ramp up its efforts to develop AI that can generate novel insights. OpenAI certainly wouldn't be the only company focused on this effort — several of OpenAI's competitors have shifted their focus to training AI models that can help scientists come up with new hypotheses, and thus, novel discoveries about the world. In May, Google released a paper on AlphaEvolve, an AI coding agent that the company claims to have generated novel approaches to complex math problems. Another startup backed by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, FutureHouse, claims its AI agent tool has been capable of making a genuine scientific discovery. In May, Anthropic launched a program to support scientific research. If successful, these companies could automate a key part of the scientific process, and potentially break into massive industries such as drug discovery, material science, and other fields with science at their core. This wouldn't be the first time Altman has tipped his hat about OpenAI's plans in a blog. In January, Altman wrote another blog post suggesting that 2025 would be the year of agents. His company then proceeded to drop its first three AI agents: Operator, Deep Research, and Codex. But getting AI systems to generate novel insights may be harder than making them agentic. The broader scientific community remains somewhat skeptical of AI's ability to generate genuinely original insights. Earlier this year, Hugging Face's Chief Science Officer Thomas Wolf wrote an essay arguing that modern AI systems cannot ask great questions, which is key to any great scientific breakthrough. Kenneth Stanley, a former OpenAI research lead, also previously told TechCrunch that today's AI models cannot generate novel hypotheses. Stanley is now building out a team at Lila Sciences, a startup that raised $200 million to create an AI-powered laboratory specifically focused on getting AI models to come up with better hypotheses. This is a difficult problem, according to Stanley, because it involves giving AI models a sense for what is creative and interesting. Whether OpenAI truly creates an AI model that is capable of producing novel insights remains to be seen. Still, Altman's essay may feature something familiar -- a preview of where OpenAI is likely headed next. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Canada's EV mandate must be repealed, Ford Canada CEO says
Ford Canada CEO Bev Goodman said June 10 that Canada's zero-emission vehicle mandate must be repealed as the consumer appetite for electric vehicles falls dramatically short of government requirements. 'The targets on full battery-electric vehicles need to be aligned with what customers want, and customers have spoken,' she said at the Canada Automotive Summit, hosted in Vaughan, Ont., by the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association. Goodman said the automaker's EV sales dropped 'like a stone' to start 2025 after the $5,000 federal EV incentive program ran out of cash in mid-January. Sign up for Automotive News Canada Breaking Alerts and be the first to know when big news breaks in the Canadian auto industry. Ford Canada does not release monthly or quarterly sales results, but nationwide figures show ZEV sales in February and March slid to 20,878 vehicles. That's down 44.2 per cent compared with the same two months a year earlier, according to the latest data available from Statistics Canada. ZEV sales for February and March represented 6.6 per cent of total vehicle sales in Canada, far short of government adoption requirements. The legislated federal targets require ZEVs to account for 20 per cent of automaker sales in model year 2026, 60 per cent in 2030 and 100 per cent in 2035. Goodman said without the incentives and other enablers that will allow Canadians to go electric such as charging infrastructure, Ottawa is not positioned to deliver on its 'very aggressive' targets. The same applies to the provincial EV mandates on the books in Quebec and British Columbia, she said. 'Ultimately, it will have a negative impact, if these mandates stick, on the industry. It will have downward pressure on vehicle sales, it will have upward pressure on pricing, and those are real concerns for consumers and the industry as a whole.' Goodman said Ford and other automakers that build vehicles in Canada are engaging with Ottawa on getting the legislation repealed. Environment and Climate Change Canada, the lead federal department on the mandate, known officially as the Electric Vehicle Availability Standard, did not immediately respond to request for comment.
