Cars, being fast moving and heavy, are quite dangerous. They should be well regulated for safety. But it turns out regulations can be bought and paid for by lobbying money…
Bloomberg reports that current US law limits number of vehicles without driver controls to 2,500/year. This means that even if Tesla somehow came up with a real "cybercab", they would be limited to producing just a very small number of them, making it economically unviable.
The San Mateo County Transportation Authority has published their 126 page draft Automated Vehicles Strategic Plan. While it is good to see that a transportation authority is trying to understand the ramifications of the technology and develop an actual plan, it is unfortunate that they are still misguided with respect to robotaxis improving safety. The key problem is that the drivers who cause safety problems by speeding are not and will not be switching over to using robotaxis. Even if robotaxis are eventually safer than human drivers, they won't make a difference if the problem human drivers won't use them.
David Zipper reports in Fast Company on how the automobile industry managed to prevent this dire needed technology from being required. Identical speed assist systems are already required in Europe on new cars, even ones manufactured in the US. The automobile companies already have to provide this!
SF Chronicle reports that Newsom puts the interest of big corporate donors above safety. He vetoed bills that would have required human operators on large trucks. He also vetoed simple yet effective reporting requirements so that the public would actually be able to know how safe autonomous are (what are they hiding??). And to make things even worse, he signed a bill that exempts robotaxi companies from receiving tickets when their vehicles do something dangerous.
SF Examiner reports that the California state Legislature has once again approved requiring vehicles over 10,000 to have a human operator on board. It is now up to Gov Newsom to sign the legislation. But given his love of lobbyists he will most likely veto it for the second time.
The San Francisco County Transportation Authority provides a final report for their Treasure Island autonomous shuttle test. While safe because the shuttle ran so slowly, the autonomous shuttle technology was found to be unreliable . The existing human driven 25-Treasure Island bus provides much more useful service and should be enhanced.
Unfortunately SB 915, legislation to allow local regulations for AVs, was pulled by the author due to other legislatures gutting it. The press release by Senator Cortese is provided here so that readers can understand what happened.
The SF Chronicle reports on how the CPUC has upheld its March decision to allow Waymo expansion to San Mateo County and Los Angeles. This was done even though local officials were very much against the expansion.
SF Examiner reports that the CPUC approved the previously agreed to $112,500 fine for Cruise for withholding information. This paltry fine will of course not affect the behavior of Cruise since it is currently burning a billion dollars a year.
While Waymo has long claimed to the public and to the CPUC that they use only clean energy, it turns out their vehicles are actually embarrassingly dirty. And the worst part is that Waymo is trying to hide information from the public that would clearly show that they are not using renewable energy for their surprisingly inefficient vehicles.
StreetBlogs reports that autonomous vehicles are not doing very well, and many people are skeptical of them. Now advocates are demanding regulations for safety.
Detailed article in TechCrunch on upcoming legislation winding its way through the California legislature. Includes details on why the changes are needed, and why the AV companies are fighting them.
