Who (or what) is behind the wheel? The regulatory challenges of driverless cars

A legal opinion by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) set the internet alight in February. The US road safety federal regulator informed Google that the artificial intelligence (AI) software it uses to control its self-driving cars could effectively be viewed as the 'driver' for some (but not all) regulatory purposes. The NHTSA's letter was in response to a request from Google seeking the NHTSA's interpretations of the US Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. It was widely viewed in the media as a recognition from the Feds that Google's AI software, the self-driving system (SDS), is legally the same as a human driver. The details of the letter, however, tell a very different story.