This month, the California Department of Motor Vehicles began accepting applications for the Autonomous Vehicle Driverless Tester Program. In February of this year, they eliminated a requirement for autonomous vehicles to have a person in the driver's seat to take over in the event of an emergency. This rule becomes effective April 2nd.Although California is at the forefront of testing these vehicles, Arizona has already began testing where they have not created regulations for autonomous vehicles. Since October of last year, two companies, Waymo and Alphabet, started testing these vehicles in Arizona without safety drivers. Their vehicles picked up passengers in driverless vehicles with the hope to launch a ride-haling service without human drivers later this year. Uber has also been testing this concept in Arizona, but they do use safety drivers in these vehicles.
Critics of the self-driving cars have voiced concerns that the new rules in California to not have a person in the driver's seat will threaten highway safety. Their position is that remote operators monitoring the self-driving cars from a distance, will be like playing a video game, but with real lives at stake.
You can learn more about autonomous vehicles in California by visiting the State of California Department of Motor Vehicles website.
Critics of the self-driving cars have voiced concerns that the new rules in California to not have a person in the driver's seat will threaten highway safety. Their position is that remote operators monitoring the self-driving cars from a distance, will be like playing a video game, but with real lives at stake.
You can learn more about autonomous vehicles in California by visiting the State of California Department of Motor Vehicles website.