Consumer Watchdog Outraged by Google-Ford-Uber Coalition on Driverless Cars
The announcement Tuesday that Google has joined with Ford, Uber and others to form the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets to promote the deployment of autonomous cars drew a predictably negative reaction from the consumer group that recently accused Google…
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of trying to skirt an "open and accountable process" on driverless cars with an expedited one "that will favor the tech giant's business and marketing plans at the expense of consumers” (see 1604070013). Consumer Watchdog finds it “absolutely outrageous that this group would purport to be for safer streets, when some of its members just aren’t releasing the basic details about their testing activities on public roads,” John Simpson, the group’s privacy project director, told us Tuesday. “That’s very problematic.” He called the coalition “just a lobbying group that’s going to push their self-interests, using a catchy name to try to claim that they’re really for safety,” Simpson said. “They could do some real things to show that they’re really for safety,” such as releasing publicly the “technical data” they have compiled on the safety of driverless cars, he said. On the appointment of David Strickland, the former top official of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, as the coalition's counsel and spokesman, Simpson said: “I’m also really troubled by the fact that the guy who’s going to be their spokesman is a former administrator. That’s just an outrageous situation. Business as usual now seems to be the revolving door in Washington.” Coalition representatives didn’t comment. NHTSA Wednesday in California plans to hold the second of two public meetings to gather input for the development of operational guidelines on driverless cars the agency has said it hopes to release this summer (see 1604080037).