California has proposed draft rules requiring steering wheels

Google's self-driving car unit on November 12 submitted a proposed design for a self-driving with no need for a human driver.Google's self-driving car unit on November 12 submitted a proposed design for a self-driving car that has "no need for a human driver," the letter to Google from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Chief Counsel Paul Hemmersbaugh said.If the car's computer is the driver for legal purposes, then it clears the way for Google or automakers to design vehicle systems that communicate directly with the vehicle's artificial pilot.."We agree with Google its (self-driving car) will not have a 'driver' in the traditional sense that vehicles have had drivers during the last more than one hundred years. The NHTSA counsel said Google could consider applying for exemptions for certain regulations, providing NHTSA with supporting documents.Google "expresses concern that providing human occupants of the vehicle with mechanisms to control things like steering, acceleration, braking. Karl Brauer, senior analyst for the Kelley Blue Book automotive research firm, said there were still significant legal questions surrounding autonomous vehicles.Washington: US vehicle safety regulators have said the artificial intelligence system piloting a self-driving Google car could be considered the driver under federal law, a major step toward ultimately winning approval for autonomous vehicles on the roads."Major automakers and technology companies such as Google are racing to develop and sell vehicles that can drive themselves at least part of the time.The process of rewriting federal regulations governing the design, placement and operation of vehicle controls could take months or years.In January, NHTSA said it may waive some vehicle safety rules to allow more driverless cars to operate on US roads as part of a broader effort to speed up development of self-driving vehicles. It noted existing regulations requiring some auto safety equipment can not be waived immediately, including requirements for braking systems activated by foot control. California has proposed draft rules requiring steering wheels and a licensed driver in all self-driving cars.But if "NHTSA is prepared to name artificial intelligence as a viable alternative to human-controlled vehicles, it could substantially streamline the process of putting autonomous vehicles on the road," he said.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said the administration may seek new legal authority to allow deployment of autonomous vehicles "in large numbers," when they are deemed safe, the department said. NHTSA raised the question of whether humans in the vehicles should also be made aware.Worries about people undermining safety Google told NHTSA that the real danger is having auto safety features that could tempt humans to try to take control. NHTSA said then it would write guidelines for self-driving cars within six months.NHTSA's Hemmersbaugh said federal regulations requiring equipment like steering wheels and brake pedals would have to be formally rewritten before Google could offer cars without those features. NHTSA said a test would need to be created that shows the vehicle computer is informed of the problem.. 4 letter to the company posted on the agency's website this week. could be detrimental to safety because the human occupants could attempt to override the (self-driving system's) decisions," the NHTSA letter stated.Google is "still evaluating" NHTSA's lengthy response, a company spokesperson said on Tuesday..For example, current federal rules require alerts on dashboards if tire pressure runs low. "The next question is whether and how Google could certify that the (self-driving system) meets a standard developed and designed to apply to a vehicle with a human driver," NHTSA said.The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc, of its decision in a previously unreported Feb. Google executives have said they would likely partner China chipboard screw din 7505 factory with established automakers to build self-driving cars.In its response to Google, the federal agency offered its most comprehensive map yet of the legal obstacles to putting fully autonomous vehicles on the road.All participants in the autonomous driving race complain that state and federal safety rules are impeding testing and eventual deployment of such vehicles. "NHTSA will interpret 'driver' in the context of Google's described motor vehicle design as referring to the (self-driving system), and not to any of the vehicle occupants," NHTSA's letter said.

Frequent self-weighing may increase weight concerns and depressive

Researchers calculated body-mass index (BMI) for the participants as well.Self-weighing, ideal weight, weight concern, body satisfaction, self-esteem, and depressive symptoms were ranked by participants using a Likert scale; adolescents also reported their engagement in unhealthy and extreme unhealthy behaviours."Noting changes in this behaviour over time can be helpful for investigating other, more concerning changes in well-being among young adults," Ms Pacanowski added.."Adolescent obesity is a public health concern, but body dissatisfaction and weight concerns are predictors of eating disorders," said Ms Pacanowski.Researchers tracked the self-weighing behaviours of more than 1,900 young adults Washington: Frequent self-weighing may increase weight concerns and depressive symptoms in young women while decreasing their self-esteem, a new study has found.As such, self-weighing may not be an innocuous behaviour and care should be taken when young adults report self-weighing, researchers said.Researchers tracked the self-weighing behaviours of more than 1,900 young adults as part of Project EAT (Eating and Activity in Teens and Young Adults) and found increases in self-weighing to be significantly related to increases in weight concern and depression and decreases in body satisfaction and self-esteem among females.

Project EAT is a longitudinal cohort study that tracked 1,902 young adults (43 per cent male, 57 per cent female) over 10 years.Self-weighing can be a useful tool to help adults control their weight, but for adolescents and young adults this behaviour may have negative psychological outcomes."Females who strongly agreed they self-weighed reported engaging in extremely dangerous weight-control behaviours at a rate of 80 per cent," said lead author Carly R Pacanowski, from the University of Minnesota in US."Clinicians should ask adolescent patients about self-weighing at office visits to determine any benefits or negative outcomes," Ms Pacanowski said.The researchers' primary interest in this study was to understand how changes in self-weighing were related to changes in the other variables studied."This makes it critical that obesity-prevention programmes avoid exacerbating these predictors by understanding how behaviours such as self-weighing affect teens," said Ms Pacanowski.Researchers used participants' descriptions of the prevalence of their self-weighing from the study to examine associations between self-weighing and changes in weight status, psychological variables, and behavioural outcomes.Results indicated that females who reported increases in self-weighing over the 10-year period were expected to have increases in weight concern and depressive symptoms and decreases in body satisfaction wholesale self drilling screw and self-esteem.