Daily Times

Karl Benz’s 1886 Patent Motorwagen, considered the first production automobile, didn’t look much like today’s cars. It was modeled on horse-drawn carriages, though it lacked doors or a roof. The vehicle also had three wheels, not four, and a tiller rather than a steering wheel.

Cars have evolved dramatically since Benz introduced his invention at the end of the 19th century. Now, with fully autonomous vehicles only a few years from mass production, the automobile could become unrecognizable from past iterations. Change isn’t always easy, but regulators, business leaders and consumers should embrace this revolution, not fear it.

Last month CEO Mark Fields announced that Ford Motor Co. would mass produce driverless cars within five years. “There’s going to be no steering wheel,” Mr. Fields explained. “There’s going to be no gas pedal. There’s going to be no brake pedal.”

Other car makers seem less certain about shifting the driver from the driver’s seat-for now. Mercedes-Benz’s prototype self-driving car still has a wheel and pedals, and that’s a conscious choice, Daimler AG chairman Dieter Zetsche said last year. “The user of an autonomous Mercedes-Benz,” Mr. Zetsche said, “will always remain the decision maker.” That, he added, is “true independence.” Car makers have already put driverless cars on the road at test facilities such as GoMentum Station in California and Mcity in Michigan. But for this technology to truly gain speed, with or without steering wheels, car makers need to be able to test their cars on all kinds of roads in various conditions.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is in the process of drafting model state regulation. But in the absence of federal guidance, state regulatory policies run the gamut. California requires all cars on the road to have a licensed driver behind a steering wheel, as well as a brake pedal and accelerator. Legislators in Arizona and Pennsylvania are considering rules that would allow driverless cars to operate as intended, without drivers. Yet even if businesses and regulators fully support driverless cars, these vehicles won’t become mainstream without buy-in from millions of consumers. If you have driven your own car for decades, it might be hard to give up control and trust a machine with your life. But some 90% of traffic deaths in the U.S. are caused by human error, according to NHTSA. Driverless cars wouldn’t even have to achieve perfection to save tens of thousands of lives.

Younger Americans get it. Drivers age 25 to 35 are three times as likely as those between 55 and 64 to want to replace their current vehicle with a completely self-driving car, according to a report from the Consumer Technology Association that will be released this month.

Elderly people and those with disabilities would also welcome the freedom of movement that driverless cars will provide. Steve Mahan, executive director of the Santa Clara Valley Blind Center, first used one of Google’s driverless cars to get around town in 2012. Millions of people could get the same opportunity in coming years. Courtesy The Wall Street Journal