Fully driverless cars approved for testing
Group warns remote backup drivers will turn operation of vehicles into a ‘deadly video game’
Self-driving cars with no human backup behind the wheel will be legal on California roads for testing and transporting the public starting April 2.
“This is a major step forward for autonomous technology in California,” DMV director Jean Shiomoto said after the state’s Office of Administrative Law approved new regulations Monday.
“Safety is our top concern and we are ready to begin working with manufacturers that are prepared to test fully driverless vehicles in California.”
Robot cars have been allowed on the state’s public roads for testing since September 2014, but a safety driver behind the wheel has been required.
While the regulations take effect April 2, it’s not clear when any of the companies working on self driving cars plan to deploy autonomous vehicles without drivers at the wheel on California’s public roads.
And even under the rules approved Monday, a form of backup will still be mandatory — for a time.
“Under these regulations, driverless cars being tested on public roads must have a remote operator monitoring the car, ready to take over as needed,” Recode reported Monday. “That remote operator — who will be overseeing the car from a location outside of the car — must also be able to communicate with law enforcement as well as the passengers in the event of an accident.”
California’s move was immediately attacked by Consumer Watchdog, which said the “disengagement reports” that companies file with the DMV when human backup drivers have to take over suggest that the technology isn’t ready for remote control. Operation of the vehicles from afar
would transform the testing of autonomous cars into “a deadly video game that threatens highway safety,” the consumer advocacy group said.
When companies are prepared to put their self-driving cars to use in transporting the public, “the remote operator is no longer required to take over the car, just facilitate communication while it monitors the status of the vehicle,” according to Recode.
In a news release, the DMV said that in order to transport members of the public, a robot car must have a data recorder, defenses against cyber attack, and “false vehicle control commands,” plus “the ability to display or transfer vehicle owner or operator information in the event of a collision.”
Fifty car makers and technology companies — including Google spin-off Waymo, GM, Tesla, Ford, BMW, Toyota, Honda, Mercedes Benz and Volkswagen — now have permits for testing autonomous vehicles with safety drivers on California public roads, the DMV reported.
Waymo late last year began testing autonomous minivans in Arizona with no safety driver behind the wheel and the company plans to run an autonomous-vehicle ride-sharing program there.
Uber said in September that its robot-car testing program had seen vehicles travel 2 million miles, and the San Francisco ridehailing giant suggested in January that it would start carrying passengers in autonomous vehicles some time next year.
The firm’s Advanced Technology Group chief Eric Meyhofer said Uber wouldn’t deploy driverless cars without human backup until the technology was proved safe.
“Once we can check that box, which we call passing the robot driver’s license test, that’s when we can remove the vehicle operator,” Meyhofer told the Denver Post. “We’re going aggressively, too.”
Earlier this month, Uber settled a lawsuit by Waymo accusing it of using stolen Waymo self-driving technology in a deal that requires the ride-hailing company to work to ensure it doesn’t use any of Waymo’s technology. It remains unclear whether the lawsuit and settlement have affected Uber’s autonomous-vehicle program.