Testing Of Self-Driving Vehicles On California Public Roads To Be Regulated By New State Law

The things of science fiction are increasingly becoming a reality, and if you’re anything like me, you keep an open mind, while still being a little wary.

The testing of automated (basically robotic) self-driving vehicles has quietly been going on in California for last several years, and only within the last few months has California Governor Edmond Brown signed a bill to regulate the activity.

The state says that it encourages the continued development, testing, and operation of these vehicles on state roads, but wants to ensure that it’s done “in a safe manner.”

The new regulations which are to be adopted “as soon as practical, but no later than Jan. 1, 2015,” are basically designed hit manufacturers in the wallet to ensure that they stay careful on the roads.

The new regulations would require the manufacturers of these vehicles – whose technology has been developed by Google – to meet obligations, including:

• Submitting to the Department of Motor Vehicles evidence of either insurance, surety bond, or self-insurance in the amount of $5 million.

To understand a little more about these vehicles, they use computers, sensors, and other systems to allow them to operate without “the active control and continuous monitoring of a human operator.”

For safety reasons though, the new regulations do require a ‘human operator’ in the driver’s seat, even if for no other reason other than to just sit there.

These vehicles will be required to have a human safety manual override system. The regulations say that the vehicles will be required to allow the human operator to take control in multiple ways, including: using the brakes, accelerator pedal, and steering wheel.

CNN reported last September that, “There have been no accidents while the cars were controlled by the computer. The only documented accident with one of the Google vehicles was a fender bender that took place while a human was in control.

“So far, the cars have racked up more than 300,000 driving miles, and 50,000 of those miles were without any intervention from human drivers,” attributing the data to information obtained from Google.

Besides California, Google has also been testing the vehicles in Nevada, which passed a law last year authorizing driverless vehicles. Both California and Nevada require the vehicles to have a person behind the wheel who can take control at any time.

The only people who will currently be allowed to operate these vehicles in California will be employees, contractors, or other people designated by the manufacturers of the vehicles.

Ultimately, the purpose of these vehicles is to expand the “mobility options for elderly and disabled people,” said Governor Brown’s Office.

Sergey Brin, Google co-founder, added to CNN that the vehicles could be used to “ferry around people who are usually unable to drive, such as blind people.”

The regulations do currently leave open the opportunity for the vehicles to operate without any driver inside at all. For a manufacturer to gain approval for this operation, the regulations require that public hearings be held, and then the manufacturer must wait at least six months before an application becomes effective.

The bill for the new regulations was authored by Senator Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), who spoke about the passage of the bill and new technology at a press conference featured below.

Technical Note About The Video: The audio from the conference was very low in some areas, and I found it useful to enable the video’s caption option. You might find it helpful to do the same!

Reader comments and input are always welcomed!