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California Developing New Self-Driving Traffic and Testing Laws

The Golden State is the world's leading self-driving research, development and testing area, with most of the planet's largest high-tech companies located there. From Apple to Google to Tesla to Yahoo, Twitter, Facebook--the list goes on and on and many of them are developing autonomous cars. At Friendly Collision Center, we love sharing these types blog with our customers in the Dallas, TX area, because we're fascinated by the concept of self-driving cars.

To accommodate all of this activity, the state has devised special laws that regulate the testing of autonomous vehicles. Some companies are happy with the new laws and feel that they are equitable, but Apple and Tesla specifically want to see a few alterations to these new laws that will soon be in effect.

In particular, Apple has requested to see much less information shared about "disengagements"--scenarios where human drivers have to take control of the vehicle. The company feels that if people read a lot of stories about self-driving mishaps, it will shake their trust in this young and emerging industry.

In Apple's letter to the Department of Motor Vehicles in California, it stated that the company is "investing seriously and generously in the study of machine learning and automation", which is something that has been in the news for quite some time. It's called an "open secret, up no one knows exactly what Apple is testing is testing at this point, however. Some say it's airborne rather than grounded, but everyone agrees it's 100% autonomous and cutting-edge, so stay tuned.

Both Tesla and Apple are asking the DMV to allow the testing of heavier self-driving vehicles too. Elon Musk is reportedly developing a self-driving truck and allegedly Apple has designs moving in that same direction as well.

Waymo (owned by Google's parent company Alphabet) and Uber have sent in requests as well with assuredly many more to follow. Waymo's goal is to let the carmakers off the hook for collisions that aren't actually their vehicles fault and Uber wants its paying customers to ride in self-driving cars while they're being tested.  The first request might be considered, we've learned, but the latter one will likely be rejected for the sake of peoples' safety, recent news reports stated.

During these formative years where we are learning more and more about autonomous vehicles, new laws and regulations will come along with them. By making safety paramount, the developers of self-driving cars in conjunction with the state's lawmakers will make Silicon Valley a responsible testing environment for the communities involved.

Sources: San Jose Mercury News, KNTV-11 and San Francisco Chronicle