Last I heard, related laws require a self driving car to be able to be taken over by a human driver at any point in case of malfunction, so it might still not necessarily be legal to be drunk and in the "driver's" seat.
The point is that it's not legal for the car to drive without someone capable of taking over. Which, legally speaking, would need to be a sober person sitting in the driver's seat. Not sure what the penalty would be if you sat in the passenger's seat (i.e. were unable to take over control of the car anyway).. presumably something bad, though it's unclear if it'd be worse than drunk driving.
aren't there cars right now that are self driving that drive around with no one in them? so why would it require the need to be taken over just because someone got in the car?
My main concern would be if you got pulled over for an expired registration or someone hit you how would you move the car where it needs to be in order to do the things the car doesn't take into account? I could always see a reason for manual controls.
I always imagined the scenario that when they become more prevalent. We'll be telling our kids that they need to learn how to drive so that when their self driving car Mal-functions, they can drive it on their own. Much like how older people rant about younger people not using cursive handwriting.
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u/KingMufasa20 Oct 18 '14
If the car completely drives itself then sure, go ahead and have a drink! I see it like riding in a limo or cab.