Google’s autonomous driving program might have engineers, technicians and lobbyists working overtime to bring self-driving cars to the world, but it’s been missing one very important post: a government policy expert.
That’s going to be rectified come January 7, 2013, when Ron Medford, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s deputy director takes a position at Google as the company’s Director of Safety for Self-Driving Cars.
Medford held down the number-two spot at NHTSA since 2009, originally joining the organization in 2003 after a career at the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
As Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s right-hand man, Medford was instrumental in getting distracted driving recognized as a national safety concern, as well as helping to draft new corporate average fuel economy requirements that boost the fleet-wide average of vehicles to 54.5 MPG by 2025.
Medford’s departure comes just a week after NHTSA began the development of a program to regulate and set performance standards for autonomous vehicles, with NHTSA administrator David Strickland announcing plans to work on a two- to three-year research project that will oversee the regulation of autonomous vehicles in the next several years.
“Deputy Administrator Medford brings a long history of working on safety issues involving automobiles and other consumer products,” a NHTSA spokesman told Wired, “and will use that experience at Google.”
Medford will leave his post at NHTSA on November 30 to join the search giant’s autonomous vehicle program, which has lobbied for self-driving legislation in three states and logged more the 300,000 miles during its three years of testing.
Google Poaches Deputy Director of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
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Google Poaches Deputy Director of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
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Google Poaches Deputy Director of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
