Pennsylvania Legislation

There is pending driverless legislation in both the Pennsylvania state House and Senate, HB 2203 and SB 1268. These are very similar, but not identical, bills.

The "operator" must be in a position to "control" the vehicle, even in autonomous mode. This is permitted to be done by remote control, though, according to the House Bill, the operator must be within 1000 miles of the vehicle. The bills require an operator and operation is conceived of as being on a test road.  

Okay, I have to chime in here that this stupid 1000-mile limit reminds me of people who hire babysitters only to tell the sitter that he or she has no actual authority to do anything without permission. If the baby or the vehicle is more than a block away, it might as well be a million miles away. Whoever or whatever technology is in charge will be making the decision in case of emergency or split-second choices.

Wait, it gets better ...

This is babysitting-technology legislation. There is no provision in either bill for completely autonomous vehicles. The operator - even 1000 miles away - must be attentive at all times. I'm hoping that attentiveness is something more than Tesla drivers are exhibiting. And the vehicle must be capable of non-autonomous control and disengagement of the driverless system. 

My translation: The vehicles imagined will not be required to have brakes or steering wheels because the operator may manually take over from a remote location. A driver does not have to be in the vehicle. But, basically, no one can be asleep at the wheel.

Like drivers ed, but without the driver

Remember how Dad, well most fathers (not my city dad, who told me to hire a driving school), start you out in a parking lot, building up to low-traffic streets and then, gradually, letting you drive on actual busy thoroughfares? This is pretty much what Pennsylvania lawmakers have in mind, without the parking lot as the required first step. 

The relevant language being:

Establish requirements that an autonomous vehicle must meet before operation , including minimum safety standards for autonomous vehicles and their operation and the minimum number of hours an autonomous vehicle must meet on a test road with low average daily traffic as determined by the department before the autonomous vehicle is introduced on a test road with high average daily traffic as determined by the department. [Emphasis added.]

Plus, there is a whole lot being left to the state's Department of Transportation, PennDOT, with the potential to make Pennsylvania either friendly or anathema to driverless vehicle players. This includes unspecified:

• Standards for being a tester of a self-driving vehicle,
• Standards for being an operator of a self-driving vehicle,
• Standards for permission for a self-driving vehicle to be operated on Pennsylvania roads, and
• Other restrictions, such as operating only within specified areas and in certain weather conditions.

No surprise that the legislation also comes with California-style requirements for reporting every incident, even those incidents one would not bother to tell Mom and Dad about.