"While the proposition was informal, the Department of Transportation, said Bryant Walker Smith, an assistant professor of law at the University of South Carolina who specializes in legal aspects of autonomous driving, "should absolutely jump at Tesla's offer."
This kind of data, Smith said, is invaluable—and all kinds of organizations should be involved in sharing their information. "Government vehicles could also give us tremendous insight into the performance of drivers, vehicles, and roadways," he said.
Why is the data so important? "We know appallingly little about an activity that we do so much, and that kills so many," he said. Compare this, he said, to the way we investigate aviation accidents—and imagine what insights we could learn if we applied the same resources to driving."