Autonomous Vehicle Policy and Legal Resource Organizations

Here is a profile of a few organizations that are primarily focused on policy and legal issues that are related to autonomous vehicles. There are lots more that pay considerable attention to autonomous transportation, but have broader missions. Those include associations that represent automakers and auto-related insurance, as well as trucking interests, and technology associations and businesses.

With a few exceptions, transit and most cities are so mired in the day to day that they have not bothered to systematically analyze what is happening with driverless developments. The taxi industry, traditionally serving cities and supplementing transit, is continuing its unsuccessful strategy of blocking technological innovation. In Upstate New York, for example, the taxi lobby failed in its attempt to ban autonomous vehicles throughout the state for the next 50 years. No kidding.

Likewise, the trucking industry and labor are, in my opinion, in DC-speak pretend mode. No words about job loss make their way into any official trucking representative statements, and unions and individual truck drivers declare that safety is the primary concern rather than holding onto middle class jobs in an economy that has witnessed entire slices of the economy disappear.

While many are ignoring this upcoming societal transformation, the following organizations are full steam ahead for promoting the changes, some focusing on safety and accessibility.

ATI

ATI has experienced staff that is knowledgeable in technology and transportation policy. Its about page states:

The Alliance for Transportation Innovation (ATI21) is a consortium of transportation technology innovators, subject matter experts, and researchers. The consortium is dedicated to increasing public and stakeholder awareness of the transformative safety, sociological, and economic improvements that can be realized through the accelerated development and deployment of ingenious transportation technologies. 

ATI21 was formed to make the public aware of the dramatic social and economic benefits innovations in transportation can provide. It is equally important that our leaders, lawmakers, and regulators are well informed, thoughtful, and restrained in their approach to regulating this environment so acceleration of the development and adoption of these technologies can be realized. The future will be extraordinarily shaped by improving the safe and efficient movement of people and goods. ATI21 is committed to making this vision a reality.

ATI seeks to smooth the policy and legal road for the deployment of autonomous vehicle technology. The website speaks of ensuring that laws and regulations do not present roadblocks to testing and deployment. ATI does not put itself forth as a social equity concern and it charges big bucks for its events - $195 for a one-day event or $500 for a four-part series in Washington, DC, plus a processing fee - to discuss legal, regulatory, and policy issues with experts. Membership fees start at $ 7,500 per year.

ATI also has a strong public relations bent, exhibited in its quite successful cross-country driverless dog-and-pony show where the autonomous vehicle comes to town and gives rides local political leaders and sometimes even members of the public.

Sponsors include EasyMile, Transdev, and the American Research and Policy Institute (ARPI).

SAVe Campaign

The SAVe Campaign stands for Safe Autonomous Vehicles Campaign, which is pro-driverless, but with a balance for ensuring safety, "corporate transparency, and manufacturer accountability."

We believe that autonomous vehicles will be among the most exciting, significant technological developments we’ll see in our lifetime, but we also believe that such a significant advance underscores the need for a commonsense commitment to putting pedestrian, passenger, and driver safety first.  

Autonomous vehicles have the potential to improve highway safety, but we’ve seen what can happen in the absence of oversight: faulty airbags, dangerous ignition switches, hidden devices to conceal exhaust levels, and malfunctioning gas pedals.

SAVe states on its website that it is a national coalition of organizations, associations and individuals. Those listed include EndDD.org (End Distracted Driving), ARCCA (a forensics engineering firm that includes crash worthiness, accident reconstruction, and other auto-related services), Safe Laboratories (an auto testing firm independent of any automaker), and Syson Corp. (an automobile mechanical engineering company), among others.

I am glad that informed parties are watching the safety details of autonomous vehicles, however, for transparency, this is also an organization that is protecting the financial interest of many members so that they continue to have a piece of the transportation pie that they currently own.

Unpaid commercial break for Waymo

Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets

This is the big kid's league with paying members Ford, Uber, Google (Waymo, I mean), and Volvo, and partners MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), the National Federation of the Blind, and the United Spinal Association, among a few others. No word on whether these partners are decorative decoys or whether the coalition will actually pay serious attention to accessibility for people with disabilities. Such accessibility includes more than wheelchair access; it means interfaces that people who are visually or auditorily impaired can use. (It also means, and this is a big question mark, redundancies that protect people who have developmental disabilities and people who are frail - meaning those whom a driver currently protects and does not leave alone. A tangential question, beyond the current discussion of this post, is whether a human will continue to be made available for frail individuals or whether that will cost a whole lot extra.)

The coalition is an influence/lobbying/educational effort to encourage a legal framework that supports transportation and technological innovation. Heading up the coalition is David Strickland, a former NHTSA administrator and Obama law school friend. He is a super nice guy and seriously smart. He is invited to give statements and to speak at the highest-level driverless government meetings and events.

National Conference of State Legislatures - Autonomous Vehicles Legislation and Enacted Laws

An excellent resource is the NCSL autonomous vehicles webpage with enacted and introduced state-level legislative information and links. This resource does not include links to state regulations governing motor vehicles; nor does it provide links to already existing state statutes relevant to the operation of these vehicles. Many of the autonomous vehicle bills and laws refer to those statutes.

NCSL also maintains a webpage with state legislative information about event data recorders. This will become relevant as state courts begin to grapple with lawsuits related to driverless vehicles.

Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund

DREDF wrote Self-Driving Cars: Mapping Access to a Technology Revolution for the National Council on Disability. Though already a bit outdated when it was published, that report remains an excellent examination of the issues to consider when designing accessible autonomous vehicles. Issues covered include not only wheelchair access, but also accessibility of interfaces, privacy concerns, and the safety of people with significant disabilities.

Georgia Bill Passes

Georgia bill SB 219 passed. I discussed the bill in an earlier post when the legislature of the Peach State had a few bills under consideration.

The Georgia law is a big win for tech companies that prefer to stay out of the automobile manufacturing business. A different bill had favored the car companies. Now we have a law that is manufacturer and technology agnostic.

The law also conceives of a significantly and wholly autonomous transportation world. No person need be inside a vehicle or have hands on the wheel. (And yes, that is a Confederate flag in the image.)

Electric bikes?

Weird provisions define and bring within the motor vehicle regulatory purview "electric assisted bicycles" and "'electric personal assistive mobility device' or 'EPAMD'," which seem to be power wheelchairs and scooters.

Another odd provision is that only until Jan. 1, 2020,  will autonomous vehicles - or AVs- be required to bear two and a half times more liability coverage than a conventional vehicle. After that, all vehicles will be equal in the eyes of the law.

Hello operator

An operator of a vehicle is not defined as the software or the vehicle itself, but rather as the person who causes the autonomous vehicle to engage, presumably whether or not the person is present inside the vehicle. Neither the operator of an autonomous vehicle nor the vehicle itself will be required to possess a Georgia driver's license - further imagining a world where humans do not drive.

Unlike other states, Georgia requires that in the event of an "accident" (not using the PC word - crash) the vehicle remain at the scene AND that the vehicle contacts law enforcement. Other laws require only that the vehicle report to law enforcement.

The autonomous vehicle must be registered in Georgia or in another state.

In all other ways, autonomous vehicles are regulated in accordance with normal vehicular regulations.

Hopes riding high

According to a news report from earlier this week, Georgia officials are pinning their hopes that this early - really, not that early - AV legislation will attract companies to test and otherwise shine a money-producing light on the Peach State.

Giving Birth to Driverless: Labor Troubles

Perhaps total jobs in transportation will not be lost, BUT how anyone can say with a straight face that driving jobs will not be reduced and then disappear is mind boggling. Maybe I missed the learning-to-deceive day in the third grade. Trucking representatives and now a transit system assure lawmakers and tell labor that they will continue to employ as many drivers as they currently do.

Please.

To all of you:

• taxi and ride hailing drivers
• truck drivers
• shuttle drivers
• delivery van drivers
• postal carrier drivers

Focus on plan B, whether that is going back to school, starting a new business, getting a different job, or figuring out if there will be another position with your current - driving-oriented - employer. The autonomous revolution is coming soon.

Writing on the wall

If drivers or their unions doubt those words, they should open their eyes. Message to labor: Look at what happened to the taxi industry when Uber and Lyft arrived with a better product; look at all the record stores that have disappeared; ask how many 22 year olds use a clock radio alarm or have a landline phone. That's your future, not the utter BS that trucking and now transit are dishing out.

Who is dishing?

The obfuscation comes from the HART transit system in Jacksonville, FL. Florida lawmakers and pubic facilities have been in the forefront of driverless. HART will do a pilot with autonomous shuttles.

Except for one county commissioner who talked job training, the powers that be decided that they would respond to legitimate labor concerns with hedging. That's my read; I realize there is another, more reasonable conclusion here. These are two quotes from a St. Peters Blog post.

“Drivers are vitally important,” said HART board chairman. “I don’t think we’re going to have a system where employees aren’t driving buses. That’s not going to happen,” he insisted.  

HART CEO Katharine Eagan said that “depending on who you ask,” it will be anywhere between two to thirty years before autonomous vehicle technology will arrive at a point where a driver still needs to be monitoring a steering wheel.

Wanted: objective assessment of employment consequences

Two federal lawmakers, both New Englanders - a Republican senator from Maine and a Democratic senator from Rhode Island - are asking the GAO (the U.S. Government Accountability Office) for a report about the predicted employment fallout that vehicles with autonomous technology will cause. They are looking for estimates of timing for autonomous trucking and other widespread rollouts and analysis of what autonomous driving will mean for employment.