The DMV will then review and finalize the rules.
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The California Department of Motor Vehicles on Wednesday issued a draft of proposed regulations for self-driving vehicles, with key provisions that a licensed driver must be at the wheel in case of emergency.
That’s not all: the proposal requires autonomous cars to meet new safety and performance requirements, with testing and certification by a third-party auditor.
The newest rules would effectively block the commercial deployment of “driverless” cars, which could function as robotic taxis that pick up passengers and drop them off at the destination of their choosing. We’ve seen recent examples of such vehicles from Nissan and Volvo.
Google is now testing their self-driving cars around Austin.
In 2012, standing beside California Gov. Jerry Brown during the signing of a landmark bill that gave the green light to driverless cars, Google co-founder Sergey Brin boldly predicted that the vehicles would be available to the public within five years.
“This points to a very long slog ahead for not just Google, but really other automakers as well – and probably some confirmation that developers of these technologies should be pivoting away from California”, said Bryant Walker Smith, a law professor at the University of SC who studies self-driving vehicle regulation.
Meanwhile, Ford announced it has enrolled in the California Autonomous Vehicle Tester Program and plans to test autonomous Fusion mid-size sedans in California next year on public roads.
“The most unsafe kind of autonomous vehicles are those that require human monitoring”, said Don Norman, professor and director of the Design Lab at UC San Diego.
LICENSED DRIVERS: A licensed driver would have to be ready to take over immediately, should the car’s sensors and computers fail.
“Our Palo Alto team has grown significantly this year, using research and innovation to explore and develop future mobility solutions”, said Ford CEO Mark Fields. Now state regulators are looking towards their eventual deployment.
In November Daimler Trucks became the first autonomous commercial vehicle to get a Nevada permit to test on public roads. The company – which began autonomous vehicle testing six years ago and has pushed for clarity on regulations – isn’t happy with this development. But the companies developing driverless auto tech will likely find the draft proposals limiting.
Alphabet officials in the past have questioned why extra regulations are necessary if the vehicles are following existing traffic regulations, and can be demonstrated to do so better than human drivers.
California’s proposed rules are subject to public comment and will not be final for months.
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“The primary focus of the deployment regulations is the safety of autonomous vehicles and the safety of the public who will share the road with these vehicles”, she explained. States including Texas, Nevada and MI have courted testing on their roads but not weighed in on consumer use of the cars in detail as California did Wednesday.
