In September, US electric car maker Tesla rolled out a semi-autonomous driving feature it describes as “the future of transport” in Australia.

As its name suggests, the Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system blurs the line between human and machine control. Our current licensing and road-safety frameworks were not designed to handle this situation.

A federal government strategy for high-tech road transport released last week has little to say about how this new semi-autonomous technology should be managed.

As experts in cities and transport, and how people use them, we have some concrete policy ideas for how to manage this innovation safely: changes to licensing rules, safety testing, and accountability and transparency.

Tesla’s new system is the most advanced form of semi-autonomous driving yet available to Australian consumers.

The car can follow routes from start to finish, handle intersections, change lanes, and respond to traffic lights. These tasks go well beyond traditional “autopilot” or adaptive cruise control.

Tesla says that “under your active supervision”, the system “will drive you almost anywhere”. Despite “full self-driving” in the product name, the active supervision part is crucial.

Early testing in Australia by reviewers from The Drive and CarExpert shows a technically........

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