US senator says more safeguards needed for self-driving cars

COLCHESTER, Conn. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal says more safeguards should be added to federal legislation allowing the gradual introduction of self-driving cars across the country.

The Connecticut Democrat wants the bill before the Senate to ensure people can manually override highly automated vehicles. He’s also calling for all the data and safety evaluations of such vehicles to be made public and to apply the legislation to cars already on the roads with autopilot functions.

Blumenthal on Tuesday experienced how two semi-autonomous cars already on the market operate while visiting the Consumer Reports test track in Colchester. Blumenthal says he learned firsthand a human being needs to override the autopilot to avoid certain objects. In his case on Tuesday, it was a car parked along the track.