California might lessen restrictions on self-driving cars
Proposal would allow nixing steering wheel
Look, Ma, no SAN FRANCISCO hands!
Under newly proposed California self-driving car rules, the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles will let companies test autonomous vehicles that lack that quintessential car component, the steering wheel.
What else can they shed? Brake pedals and human drivers, anywhere in the car.
Once the cars have been tested either on a closed track or through computer modeling, selfdriving cars would be able to tool around California roads without drivers or even the ability to be driven by a driver.
Prior to this, autonomous vehicles had to have a driver sitting ready to take charge at any second should anything go wrong.
Instead, manufacturers would have to submit an application, certify there’s a communication link to the vehicle, provide a copy of their plans for any interactions with local law enforcement, create a training program for remote operators and get a safety assessment letter from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
In a shift, companies would no longer have to get permission from the jurisdiction where they plan to test the cars but instead simply notify them in writing.
The proposed regulations were published Friday, and the public has until April 24 to comment. The new rules could take effect in 2018.
They’re in response to frustrations that California was moving too slowly in the race to develop these pilot-less cars, potentially losing ground to other, friendlier states. Both Florida and Michigan allow autonomous vehicles to be tested with few restrictions, and Arizona has almost no rules at all governing them. Twenty-one manufacturers are testing autonomous vehicles in California.
“These rules protect public safety, promote innovation and lay out the path for future testing and deployment of driverless technology. This rulemaking is the next step in working with stakeholders to get this right,” California Transportation Agency Secretary Brian Kelly said in a statement.