Fully Driverless Vehicles Approved for Testing on California Roads

Driverless Car Financial Times Credit: Financial Times
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California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) this week announced sweeping new rules and regulations which inherently pave the way for companies including Uber, General Motors, and Faraday Future to begin testing their “fully autonomous” vehicles — self-driving cars without safety drivers behind the steering wheel — on the Golden State’s open roads.

In its announcement, the DMV talks of ‘Driverless Testing and Public Use Rules for Autonomous Vehicles’, which were officially approved by the State’s Office of Administrative Law earlier this week. They primarily outline a multi-phasic permit granting process for companies eager to “deploy driverless vehicles without anyone behind the wheel.”

“This is a major step forward for autonomous technology in California,” said California’s DMV Director, Jean Shiomoto, via statement. “Safety is our top concern and we are ready to begin working with manufacturers that are prepared to test fully driverless vehicles in California.”

According to the DMV’s announcement, a public notice will go live on the agency’s website sometime on March 2, initiating a 30-day countdown before the first round of permit applications can officially be approved beginning on April 2nd. Companies like Waymo, Google, and Apple who might be looking to obtain these permits to begin testing their fully autonomous cars will allegedly be able to apply for one of three different permit types: ‘testing with a safety driver’, ‘driverless testing’, and ‘deployment’.

DMV officials, according to The Verge, confirmed there are currently 50 companies testing a total of around 300 autonomous vehicles — all of which are appropriately licensed with the DMV. Apple, for its part, began testing a fleet of self-driving Lexus RX450h Hybrid SUVs back in of January. And other companies, including Google-owned Waymo have been spotted testing their autonomous cars (albeit with drivers behind the wheel) on roads in and around the Silicon Valley/San Francisco Bay Area.

Apple’s jump into the self-driving car fray followed the DMV’s prior, October 2017 announcement of revised regulations governing the deployment of autonomous vehicles on public roads. Among other things, the DMV’s revised regulations effectively green light the testing of “autonomous cars without steering wheels, foot pedals, mirrors, and human drivers behind the wheel” on California public roads starting in 2018.

It seems only logical that California would be among the first states to implement these regulations, particularly as we move closer towards a future where autonomous vehicles are considered more mainstream rather than fantasy.

At present, multiple California-based companies including Apple, Tesla, Waymo and more are in the process of testing their autonomous cars — with the in-cabin assistance of one of the state’s nearly 1,000 licensed safety drivers, of course.

Come April 2, 2018, however, when California’s new rules go into effect, these same companies would be able to deploy cars without a human driver seated behind the wheel.

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