Penalties for autonomous cars in California

Starting in July, police officers in California will be allowed to punish traffic violations committed by autonomous vehicles. The manufacturer has to pay. They also have to react better in accidents and other emergency situations. This and more is part of a far-reaching amendment to the regulation of self-driving vehicles introduced in 2017 by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

It opens California’s roads to self-driving heavy vehicles for the first time: On the one hand, public transport operators and universities are allowed to use autonomous buses with a maximum permissible total weight of up to 6.35 tons. On the other hand, the most populous US state allows trucks larger than 4.5 tons.

At the same time, there are new approval conditions: Autonomous cars must first prove themselves on public roads in 50,000 miles (a good 80,000 km) of test drives with a safety driver, and then again the same amount without a safety driver. For heavy vehicles, ten times the minimum distance applies. However, experts have long pointed out that the number of kilometers covered says little about the resilience of an autonomous driving system in challenging situations.

Emergencies

In the future, emergency services will have to have access to manual control of autonomous vehicles. In addition, there must be a duplex voice connection to the vehicle’s operations center for emergency services. The call center must respond within 30 seconds. The operator must train his employees accordingly and revise the workstations annually. At the same time, there are now separate licensing regulations for remote-controlled road vehicles as well as rules for special driving licenses for remote control drivers.

Driving and access bans for self-driving vehicles can now be imposed in California in emergency situations, for example if the fire department has to put out a burning building or emergency services rush to another traffic accident. In such situations, chauffeurless automobiles have proven to be stubborn obstacles. The responsible authorities are therefore allowed to spontaneously use geofencing to define areas where such vehicles have no place. If they are already there, they have to leave within two minutes.

In the future, operators will also have to disclose more data – not only about accidents, but also about emergency braking and broken down vehicles. In addition, the California DMV is giving itself new leeway: If it is beneficial to public safety, the authority can change approvals that have already been issued and limit the operation of autonomous vehicles in terms of fleet size, operating area, speed limits and/or weather conditions.

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