With driverless cars set to hit California roads for testing this spring, the state is now exploring how autonomous semi-trucks, trailers and other commercial vehicles can be added to roadways, the head of the state Department of Motor Vehicles told lawmakers this week.
It’s the next step in California’s — some would say cautious and slow — journey to allow driverless vehicles to be tested and open up new ways for people to travel and businesses to deliver products.
“They are all embracing this technology,” DMV Director Jean Shiomoto said of the trucking and package industries. “Many are planning on integrating autonomous vehicles into their business practices, and we need to be ready.”
It’s been four years since the DMV first issued regulations that allowed companies to test autonomous vehicles with a driver behind the wheel, and 50 companies are currently approved to test them on public roads, including traditional car companies like General Motors and BMW and automotive supply companies like Bosch and startups in Silicon Valley.
Pending regulations submitted last month for review to the Office of Administrative Law propose letting companies test vehicles without a driver, including cars that don’t have a steering wheel or brake pedals. The DMV expects those regulations to be finalized next week and effective April 1.
“Companies will have the ability to test and deploy their fully autonomous vehicles on California’s public roadways after receiving a permit from the department,” Shiomoto told the Senate Transportation Committee, which held an informational hearing Tuesday on the issue.
Despite California’s movement, several lawmakers expressed frustration that the state is moving too slowly, with other states such as Florida and Arizona having opened up their roadways to California-based companies that wanted to test their technology.
“We’re supposed to be the leaders,” said Sen. Bob Wieckowski, D-Fremont. “It’s as though there are other states taking the lead with our technology.”
Transportation experts say the industry is on the cusp of revolution — an extraordinary and major transformation that California has the opportunity to lead. But it’s one where policy decisions by the Legislature are needed to shape the future of how autonomous vehicles might be used for the public good, said Dan Sperling, director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis.
“Policy is lagging with automated vehicles and shared rides, but it’s not surprising given the speed these innovations are sweeping through the transportation sector,” Sperling said. “But there’s still time for policy to get ahead of these innovations and steer them to the public interest.”
Specifically, Sperling urged lawmakers to encourage investments in pooled or shared rides of autonomous vehicles and protect public transit. Leaving the market to dictate the use of autonomous vehicles, he warned, might only benefit those who could afford driverless vehicles to shuttle themselves around or run errands for them.
Rather, he argued, the state should harness technology to improve transit, reduce vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions, and serve the disadvantaged.
“We need to create the policy framework that’s going to guide the use of autonomous vehicles toward the public interest,” Sperling said. “It’s going to be too late soon if we don’t get started now.”
