--- title: Five Best Ideas: Why We Should Regulate Self-Driving Cars description: Why we should stop tidying up and embrace the mess, what can infant laughter teach us about our brains and more. canonical: https://time.com/4654980/why-we-should-regulate-self-driving-cars-like-drugs/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-31T17:00:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:59:07.510Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Why We Should Regulate Self-Driving Cars like Drugs og:description: And four more of today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4654980/why-we-should-regulate-self-driving-cars-like-drugs/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why We Should Regulate Self-Driving Cars like Drugs twitter:description: And four more of today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Why We Should Regulate Self-Driving Cars like Drugs by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jan 31, 2017 5:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jan 31, 2017 5:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**We should regulate self-driving cars like drugs — with clinical trials.**](http://www.citylab.com/tech/2017/01/self-driving-cars-should-be-regulated-like-drugs/514523/) By Linda Poon in _CityLab_ **2\.** [**This is why we should stop tidying up and embrace the mess.**](https://qz.com/898746/an-economist-explains-why-you-should-stop-tidying-up-and-embrace-the-mess/) By Tim Harford in _Quartz_ **3\.** [**What can infant laughter — and the reasons they laugh — teach us about our brains?**](https://aeon.co/ideas/five-month-old-babies-know-whats-funny) By Gina Mireault in _Aeon_ **4\.** [**Here’s how analog experiences — vinyl records, paper notebooks and more — help us recharge.**](http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/02/09/revenge-analog-pause-we-can-go-back/) By Bill McKibben in the _New York Review of Books_ **5\.** [**A writing program for prisoners is changing lives in Florida.**](http://democracyjournal.org/arguments/a-prison-education/) By Kathie Klarreich in _Democracy_  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4654980/why-we-should-regulate-self-driving-cars-like-drugs/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4654980/why-we-should-regulate-self-driving-cars-like-drugs/"},"headline":"Why We Should Regulate Self-Driving Cars like Drugs","datePublished":"2017-01-31T17:00:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:59:07.510Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4654980/why-we-should-regulate-self-driving-cars-like-drugs/","keywords":["Innovation","Prison","organization","self-driving cars","infants"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4654980/why-we-should-regulate-self-driving-cars-like-drugs/","name":"Why We Should Regulate Self-Driving Cars like Drugs"}}]}] ```