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ByJustinPritchard and Joan Lowy TheAssociatedPress LOS ANGELES A Tesla in Autopilot mode can drive it- self but it's not a "self-driv- ing" vehicle, at least as far as safety regulators are con- cerned. So, instead of coming un- der heavy government scru- tiny before being sold to the public, Tesla can mass-pro- duce cars that automati- cally adjust speed with the flow of traffic, keep their lane and slam the brakes in an emergency. Tesla tells its custom- ers to stay alert while driv- ing, only use the technology on divided highways, keep their hands on the wheel and be prepared to take over should the technol- ogy fail. Some clearly don't — online videos, including some with the "driver" in the back seat, show people taking the very risks Tesla warns against. Still, the disclaimers — and a few regulatory wrin- kles — are enough for the government. Tesla made sure of that before going to market with the technology in October, approaching the Depart- ment of Motor Vehicles in its home state of California to check whether officials would throw up any road- blocks. The department was neck deep writing rules for "autonomous vehicles" that one day will be able to drive themselves without human control. But Cali- fornia's DMV had no au- thority over Tesla's Autopi- lot, which was not "autono- mous" because of the need for human backup. If officials at the National Highway Traffic Safety Ad- ministration had any safety concerns about Autopilot, they too had no basis for tapping the brakes on the technology before its debut. It's not a loophole — it's the way automobile regu- lation works in the United States. Automakers can add what they call an advanced driver-assistance system, such as Autopilot's lane- keeping, as long as the tech- nology meets broad fed- eral safety requirements. It's only if there are prob- lems once the technology is on the road that regulators swoop in. That is happening now as NHTSA investigates whether Autopilot has a defect that failed to pre- vent a fatal crash in Flor- ida in May. The driver, an Autopilot enthusiast, was killed when his Model S did not detect a truck that had turned left across oncoming traffic on a divided highway. NHTSA's reactive ap- proach is the opposite of how the Federal Aviation Administration treats au- topilot that commercial air- plane pilots rely on for most flights. "We wouldn't dream of putting a new automated technology on a plane without testing it first to the FAA's satisfaction," said Missy Cummings, who as director of Duke Univer- sity's Humans and Auton- omy Lab has studied the limitations of machine- aided operation in planes and cars. In a nod to those con- cerns, U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said Tuesday that govern- ment regulators and the auto industry need to en- gage in a more rigorous re- view of self-driving tech- nology before it enters the marketplace to assure con- sumers it is "stress-tested." After testing Autopi- lot for about a year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled the system last fall with characteristic flair. He played up the technology but also cautioned drivers "to keep their hands on the wheel just in case" because "the software is very new." Since the Florida crash and subsequent federal investi- gation, Musk has said Tesla is working to improve Au- topilot. Tesla is not the only high- end automaker that has in- troduced advanced driver- assistance systems. Mer- cedes sedans, for example, can keep their lanes. Audi plans to introduce what it says will be the most ad- vanced self-driving system on the market in its A7 se- dan in 2018, though the technology will be limited to low-speed, commuter- style traffic at first. Tesla is, in the parlance of Silicon Valley, a disrup- tor of established auto- makers. TESLAS Autopilot technology drives cars; comes with warnings By Alison Noon The Associated Press SACRAMENTO Califor- nia's top political watchdog led her peers in approving a rule Thursday aiming to crack down on lobbyists who fail to disclose efforts to influence government of- ficials. The Fair Political Prac- tices Commission passed a regulatory change champi- oned by commission chair- woman Jodi Remke that al- lows state regulators to re- quire suspected lobbyists to provide evidence showing whether they're being paid to influence government officials. If they don't, the agency will automatically decide they're in violation of state transparency laws. Remke and agency attor- neys said investigators are currently stymied in most probes of suspected unreg- istered lobbyists because the people who are targeted can simply say that they do not qualify as lobbyists. The commission decided to change the process so in- vestigatorswhosuspectpeo- ple of unregistered lobbying can require them to provide evidence that can be used to determine whether or not they broke lobbying rules. Lobbyists are required to register with the state if the amount they make for communicating with gov- ernment officials reaches $2,000 in any given month. The change permits investi- gators to demand evidence about their compensation and financial gain related to contact with government officials. Critics say the proposal il- legally requires alleged un- registered lobbyists to prove their innocence. POLITICS State wants people to prove they're not lobbyists MARCIOJOSESANCHEZ—THEASSOCIATEDPRESSFILE Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors Inc., introduces the Model X car at the company's headquarters in Fremont. FRIDAY, JULY 22, 2016 REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM |NEWS | 5 A