(Bloomberg) -- If you have nightmares about robots taking over the world, here’s something that might really scare you: some tech industry veterans in Seattle want to ban human drivers from a 150-mile stretch of Interstate 5 and reserve it for self-driving cars, trucks and buses.
|Testing ground
The ribbon of highway between Seattle and Vancouver should be used as a testing ground for autonomous vehicles, according to a provocative proposal that says embracing the technology would save lives, ease congestion and be less expensive than a high-speed rail system.
Tom Alberg, co-founder of Madrona Venture Group and a board member of Amazon.com Inc., and Craig Mundie, a former Microsoft Corp. executive, will release the plan Monday at a cross-border innovation conference in Vancouver sponsored by Microsoft. They suggest phasing it in over a decade, starting with allowing self-driving vehicles in car-pool lanes.
In an interview, Alberg said autonomous driving could take “two years, five years or 10 years” to become widespread. “But this is going to happen, and ultimately I’m convinced these will be safer than human drivers. Why not start planning for this now?”
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