Council: Public must have input on self-driving vehicles education

Pittsburgh City Council gave final approval Tuesday to accepting a grant aimed at educating the public about self-driving vehicles — but only after it attached stipulations for how the money is to be used.

The Department of Mobility and Infrastructure can use the $410,539 Knight Foundation grant under the conditions that the education and discussion be a “communitydriven process.”

Residents, disability rights advocates and union representatives scrutinized the grant, airing their concerns about autonomous vehicles for roughly an hour last week before council.

Those concerns included worries about the safety of self-driving vehicles and questions of whether the grant money would be used to promote the technology.

The department must now convene an advisory panel representative of those who spoke to council. Any outreach during the grant’s duration must include engagement with “laypeople” and provide for the “solicitation of resident input,” including surveys, focus groups and collection of feedback, according to an attachment council added Tuesday.

Seven council members approved the amended resolution to accept the money, with Councilwoman Darlene Harris casting the lone no vote. Councilwoman Erika Strassburger was absent.

The Knight Foundation is based in Miami and provides funds for the arts, technology and journalism, traditionally only in cities where the Knight family owns newspapers. The foundation made an exception for Pittsburgh because it is a hub for selfdriving technology testing, according to Lilian Coral, a director on the project for Knight.