California Bill Tries to Stymie Proliferation of Autonomous Trucks Without Backup Drivers

 Out driving on a California highway or Interstate? There's a chance that some of the semi-trucks you see lumbering down the road around you are fully autonomous—not just using a hands-free fitur like Ford's Blue Cruise or GM's Super Cruise. king88bet Login Alternatif

While these self-driving trucks have traveled millions of miles without major incidents, it seems that the California Senate has decided that these autonomous semis and larger vehicles can no longer drive without a human operator behind the wheel, rectifying that by introducing AB 316. king88bet Login

You'd think this would be due to unforeseen safety issues, but opponents of the bill say that this is the California Senate's way of satisfying labor unions within the Golden State. The bill also has one final hurdle to pass before it becomes law. King88Bet Situs Slot Terbaik

When looking at California's data on autonomous tes vehicles—which includes cars, trucks, and large commercial vehicles like semi-trucks—they have akimulated more than 5.1 million miles with a safety driver and 622,257 miles fully autonomous between December 1, 2021, and November 30, 2022.

Tech Crunch also looked at the data between human-driven semis and autonomous semis and found that there have been zero fatalities caused by autonomous trucks over a two-year period of reporting. Despite that safety record, it seems that California's Senate still wants to require autonomous semi-trucks to have a driver behind the wheel lewat AB 316.

Is It Really About Safety?

Much of what AB 316 adds is already applied to autonomous vehicles in general, which included semis and any vehicle with a GVW of 10,000 pounds. In California, no autonomous vehicle is allowed on the road as a tes vehicle without the approval of the state's DMV.

And deactivations during testing are already recorded and that data is mandated to be turned over to the DMV. A human driver is mandated to be behind the wheel of those tes vehicles.