Self-driving cars haven't always obeyed the rules of the road, but unlike vehicles with humans behind the wheel, they have gotten away with it.
That's about to change.
A series of state regulations for autonomous vehicles based on Assembly Bill 1777 will go into effect July 1, including a process for authorities to issue an “AV noncompliance notice,” the California Department of Motor Vehicles announced Tuesday.
Here's how this new law will work and what other rules autonomous vehicle manufacturers will soon have to follow:
Where rubber and robots meet on the road
The new regulation was developed “to address the gap in how traffic violations for autonomous vehicles are handled,” said DMV spokesman Jonathan Groveman.
Although California is home to several autonomous vehicle operators, the most expansive right now is Waymo, which has driverless robotaxis that guide passengers around the San Francisco Bay area and dozens of cities in Los Angeles County.
Seven months ago, a self-driving Waymo made an illegal U-turn at a traffic light right in front of police officers in San Bruno.
The image of an officer staring at the empty driver's seat of the offending vehicle may have been good for a laugh, but other incidents have been no laughing matter. Situations like a Waymo failing to stop for a school bus in Atlanta or running over a child in Santa Monica highlighted how law enforcement officers could not conduct traditional traffic enforcement with driverless vehicles.
Under previous state law, traffic violations were imposed on a human driver “to address driving behavior” and were “applied to that individual's driver's license,” Groveman said in an email.
“Because autonomous vehicles do not have a human driver (and existing citations must be issued to a licensed person), the law establishes a new mechanism that allows moving violations to be issued to a manufacturer of autonomous vehicles,” he said.
Manufacturers must submit a “First Aid Interaction Plan” to the DMV and post it online, according to Groveman. Those plans explain how authorities can interact with the vehicle and where officers can find important information, such as registration and insurance documents.
“Driverless vehicles are expected to recognize law enforcement lights and sirens and stop when appropriate,” Groveman said.
If there is a traffic violation scenario involving a self-driving car that results in a collision, for example, an officer can issue the violation to the manufacturer's designated person who will arrive at the scene, according to the new law.
In other circumstances, if an officer fails to conduct a traffic stop, he or she will provide a copy of the violation to the DMV and the manufacturer within 72 hours of the observed incident.
Waymo spokeswoman Julia Ilina previously told The Times that the company's vehicles are already subject to close and ongoing oversight by California regulators, and that the company's self-driving system “is designed to respect the rules of the road.”
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Advocates of autonomous vehicles have said that driverless taxis improve road safety conditions in the communities in which they operate. In the recent Santa Monica incident, for example, the Waymo vehicle braked hard before impact, resulting in a “significant reduction in the speed and severity of the impact” which, according to the company, “is a demonstration of the material safety benefit of the Waymo Driver.”
How do violations work?
Starting July 1, California law enforcement agencies will be able to issue AV Noncompliance Notices when an autonomous vehicle fails to obey traffic laws. Since these vehicles operate through a combination of integrated hardware and software systems, “the manufacturer is the entity responsible for correcting the behavior,” Groveman said.
When a notification is sent, the DMV will review the incident, conduct any necessary investigation and determine what resolution, if any, is required, he said.
“If a manufacturer is unable to correct the problem or if repeated noncompliance occurs, the department may take administrative action, including restricting or suspending the manufacturer's operating permit,” Groveman said.
The other entity that investigates and issues autonomous vehicle recalls is the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Waymo specifically has been the focus of several NHTSA investigations, including a recall of more than 1,200 vehicles last year due to a software defect that caused a series of minor accidents.
Other new regulations for driverless cars
Under recently adopted state regulations, autonomous vehicle manufacturers must:
- Complete a total of 50,000 or 500,000 miles of testing, depending on the vehicle's weight rating, before requesting the vehicle to be on the road. Testing should include trips with a person behind the wheel for safety reasons, as well as completely driverless trips.
- Annually update first aid interaction plans, access to manual vehicle override systems, two-way communication links with 30-second response times, and training requirements to ensure safe and timely interactions.
The laws also:
- Authorize local emergency response officials to issue emergency geofencing directives requiring autonomous vehicle manufacturers to order their fleets to leave an identified area within two minutes to limit conflicts during active emergency situations;
- Establish standards for remote operations personnel, including licensing qualifications, as well as permit and training requirements for drivers and remote assistants;
- Modernize data reporting requirements, focusing on new safety metrics, including system failures, vehicle immobilizations, and hard braking events;
- Authorize the DMV to impose specific operating restrictions on manufacturers, including fleet size, location, speed and weather limits, when necessary for public safety;
- Eliminate the prohibition on operating autonomous vehicles with a gross vehicle weight of 10,001 pounds or more, opening the California market to autonomous vehicle charging operations, subject to applicable state and federal requirements;
- Allow public entities or universities to operate autonomous transit vehicles with a gross weight rating of up to 14,001 pounds, providing a new avenue for innovation in transit services.
