A proposed bill in California would require self-driving taxi companies to report extensive data on crashes and safe driving, and would impose hefty daily fines for failure to do so. Strict monitoring will continue.
Vehicles in San Francisco are frequently seen blocking traffic and blocking emergency vehicles from passing, raising safety concerns among Bay Area residents and politicians.
A new bill proposed in the state Legislature would double data reporting requirements for companies, requiring them not only to report when a vehicle collides with another vehicle or object, but also to manually override their actions due to an accident. It also requires reporting if there is any. safety.
Companies are already required to report data during test operations, but not during normal use.
Cruise vehicles owned by General Motors were removed from California roads in October after a safety investigation by the state's Department of Transportation. The ministry claimed the taxis were “unsafe for public operation” and that Cruise had “misrepresented” safety information.
Google's Waymo vehicles have become commonplace in San Francisco, but they have faced development challenges, including a mass software recall in February. Last month, crowds in the streets set a vehicle on fire from a protest.
State regulators earlier this month allowed Waymo to expand into Silicon Valley and Los Angeles.
San Francisco City Councilman Matt Haney (D), who authored the bill, said he hopes the bill will make the technology safer.
“I support the technology. I'm not trying to shut down (robotaxis),” Haney told the San Francisco Chronicle. “But as we move from testing to full-scale deployment, there are a lot of things that aren't being shared that undermine trust, undermine transparency, and undermine safety.”
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