The California Senate on Monday passed AB 316, a bill that requires trained human safety operators to be inside an autonomous heavy-duty vehicle while it is operating on public roads in the state. The bill would be a by proxy a ban of driverless trucks on the state's roads.
The bill had met resistance from the state's technology and autonomous technology stakeholders, many of which are headquartered in California, and Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and Office of Business & Economic Development (GO-Biz) raised concerns with the proposed ban.
“We are disappointed to see AB 316 pass the California Senate. The Department of Motor Vehicles and Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) were correct that AB 316 undermines oversight of expert regulators in California," said Jeff Farrah, executive director for the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association (AVIA). "AB 316 will also lock in the unacceptable safety status quo on the state’s roads and cause California to miss out on the supply chain benefits of autonomous trucking. We urge Governor Newsom to veto AB 316 so experts in his administration can evaluate autonomous trucking technology and ensure California benefits from the technology.”
The California DMV said it opposes AB 316 because "it will not increase safety and will, in fact, have a chilling effect on the development of technology in California that is intended to result in increased safety benefits on our roadways.”
GO-Biz expressed concern about AB 316’s potential impact on California’s overall economic competitiveness and the state’s ability to carry forward momentum from billions of dollars in recent investments for supply chain infrastructure.
The federal government, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), requires all companies using autonomous vehicle technology to report any incidents (even minor) with the technology under a Standing General Order (SGO). This is a higher degree of transparency than any other vehicle type.
In 2 years of reporting and tens of millions of miles driven on public roads, there has never been a fatal AV crash.
