I’m assuming it would be illegal but on what basis could you be charged if you weren’t driving recklessly? Let’s suppose that you had cameras for every viewing angle, etc.
OHio has a statute that says you have to be in “reasonable control” of the vehicle. I’d be surprised if every state didn’t have a similar regulation.
I would guess that the state could say you weren’t in “reasonable” conrol. They probably have the law on their side in the definition of “reasonable.”
Heck, if it went to a jury trial, I’d vote to convict you. It’s tough enough trying to avoid the cars with the assholes on the inside.
For years, a similiar question has tormented me.
Would a car modified to be driven from the backseat be legal?
The idea of folks staring at the empty driver’s seat really appeals to me.
I recall hearing that cars must have mechanical connections between the steering wheel and the steering mechanism. A purely electronic steering mechanism (“drive by wire”) would not be street legal.
GM’s Hywire concept car uses drive-by-wire technology, so I’m guessing it IS legal.
The problem I see it what happens if the radio link breaks?
If a driver was in the car available to take control and the automatic system could be easily disengaged then perhaps you could get away with it. Then again if you need a driver anyway you may as well get rid of the person remotely driving.
Also in germany there is something along the lines of a HOV lane but instead of multiple passengers there are multiple cars sharing a very small space (tailgating). These cars are controlled by computer when entering this lane, manually driven othertimes.
I don’t know if it ever got out of the experimental stage though.
James Bond never gets arrested for it.
k2Dave - High end remote control receivers have a ‘safety’ setting that gets activated when the signal is lost. Depending on how complicated a system you devise, 4 channels, brake, gas, shift, steer, you could have steer go striaght, brake go on, gas go off, shift go to park (after stopping).
You can drive from the back seat by moving he controls to the back seat. I’ve actually seen this done to a Datsun 510.
As long as you followed the traffic laws, I don’t think it would be illegal. The biggest problem would be the expense, getting motors and devising mechanical systems to operate the controls. Besides the expense of creating the system, there would be the liability if anything did go wrong and a three ton wheeled toy drives full speed into a 7-11 or something.
kidCharlimange - What are you really wanting to know? Do you have a car ready to go and are worried about being arrested?
It is illegal for exactly the same reasons that you can’t just build any powered vehicle you want or modify an existing vehicle however you wish, then take it out on the road.
It has to be street legal. This means it has to be approved by the relevant authorities as being safe to be out on the public road. Radio controlled vehicles would fail this for the obvious reason that the driver may lose sight of the vehicle and cannot always see what is going on around it.
um no I dont have a cite, but no. I saw the vehicle on Car and driver tv or some similar program. and they said something to the effect: It isn’t legal in the states because you need a mechanical link betwix the steering wheel and front tires,the driver needs to be connected,physically via mech link. Same thing scr4 said. And besides its a concept car it’ll never see the street. At least not in its current form…
Per a radio show I heard on NPR (All Things Considered, I believe) the US Department of Transportation must certify the safety of all vehicles sold in the US for operation on public roads.
Among other criterion, there is a regulation indicating that there must be a mechanical linkage between the driver and the braking system.
If you think about it, any modern car with electronic fuel injection in fact has a non-mechanical linkage between the gas pedal and the car “going”.
I cant speak of other cars,but my electronically fuel-injected car has a mechanical linkage to the throttle-body. anyhow The laws regarding mechanical linkages(brakes,steering) are in place because they are more reliable and proven. And IMHO stopping and steering are more important than “going”… If you can’t “go” you take the bus,If you can’t stop or steer you may well be taking the stairway to heaven…
Currently all cars sold in the US must have mechanical controls for the throttle, steering and brakes. Both Porsche and BMW sell cars in Europe with electronic throttles. Mercedes has experimented with electronically controlled steering. The McLaren F1 team experimented with electronic braking but it was banned by before they could race with it. A Popular Mechanics article I read about 10 years ago was about a totally electronically controlled car that could be driven by a quadraplegic. The article did mention that a car like that would probably never be legal to drive on US highways though.
Well, if you had camera’s per the OP, losing site of the car wouldn’t be a problem.
Plus, if you were doing it for a movie or something, you could get a waiver or permit or something, provided it was done in a remote location or “closed track” or something.
I’m still kinda waiting to hear from Kidcharliemange on what he was thinking…
-Sandwriter
er, “sight” of the car
Yes but how do you set it. On a straight parkway, have it maintain speed? what happens on a curve or slow traffic ahead?
Also it breaks the requirement for a mechanical braking system.
Well, I’ll be. Thank you Tony Montana, Jonathan Woodall, and racer72 for the correction.
Autonomous cars are inevitable. They’ll be here sooner or later. Do a google search for Autonomous cars.
The cars maybe networked and so it will be able to workout the fastest route and avoid obstacles.
And it will be a lot safer.
k2Dave - I’m did not mean to imply that my example safe mode was the only way to do it. Based on your examples of various situations I think you are thinking too much. Either it’s a remote control car that stops when it loses the signal, or it is an autonomous car with radar, GPS, local maps and a CPU that could take over if the signal is lost. How complicated do you want to make it? How much money do you have to spend?
Oh and where’s Charlie with a better idea of what he was after?
As much as it takes for the car to be reasonably safe for people around it.