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…
TechCrunch reports that Cruise is being fined $500,000 because they withheld information from regulators. They are also being investigated by the NHTSA for issues with pedestrians, and with the SEC for financial issues.
Not Just Bikes posts an epic video on not just the problems of self driving cars, but how they would turn our cities into driving hell - unless we do something about it.
Reuters reports that the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is finally requiring the robotaxi companies to report critical information on incidents. Instead of reporting being optional once past the test phase of an implementation, it will be mandatory to report collisions and when vehicles simply get stuck in traffic or receive tickets.
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.
